We have to have the best education system in the world. We need mathematicians, engineers and scientists to develop the products and processes of the future, and frankly, we're not doing that.

There would be the need to try and kill as many as possible of the scientists, technicians, engineers, mathematicians who are involved in the process because, in some ways, one sets back a program much more by killing the personnel.

Mathematicians stand on each other's shoulders while computer scientists stand on each other's toes.

Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals — the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned, if at all.

Ultimately, it will take sample return of any putative 'fossils' to convince the scientists of the world. But we can tell a lot in situ [on-the-spot] before such a time,

This is a critical mission that will be watched by scientists around the world. We want to answer vital questions about how humans affect the environment.