When Mark Vand was rendered comatose by a vehicle accident DARPA offers his mom an alternative to pulling the plug. They will download his mind and upload it into a new body when the technology to do so is made available.

Deep space satellites have revealed the presence of intelligent life on a planet roughly 250 light years from earth. They will send the subjects to this planet and create them bodies of the planets inhabitants. They just have to act as ambassadors of Earth to these foreign life forms. What could possibly go wrong.