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.

There is evidence that imported Asian pollution causes ozone levels in the air crossing the western border of the U.S to increase. This makes efforts to achieve American air quality standards more difficult and costly. Though we don't have any control over pollution coming from other countries, we can try to predict the quality of our future air and climate based on its source. These scientific experiments are necessary to do this.

This is an international experiment for an issue that has international implications. The Mexican government, the U.S., the German government, and others are all involved in this effort to protect this natural resource that we all breathe.

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,

[Scientists believe bird flu] will migrate or mutate slowly toward the type of flu that can be transmitted from person to person, ... We would not be ready if it were to happen instantly.

We are assembling a list of comet ingredients that will be used by other scientists for years to come,