If I had an unlimited budget, I would really be probing that question of life because we know what the questions are, and we know what the destinations are.

I wish someone would redo 'Dune.'

It's part of the human character to want to know what's over the next hill, to want to know what's beyond.

We actually look to the scientific community to kind of come back to NASA and tell us what the priorities should be. And then at NASA, we try to look within our budget and say, 'What can we accommodate, and what are the most important things for the nation?'

We're going to understand that there is life on other bodies in the solar system.

A lot of my role is advocacy, and as a scientist, you're an advocate, too, because you are coming up with a theory and having to convince your fellow scientists that you're right.