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Goldin has worked to increase NASA's efficiency while decreasing its budget since he was named administrator in 1992.

Rice's Chair of Space Physics and Astronomy Patricia Reiff introduced Goldin as a champion of the "smaller, faster, cheaper, better" creed, which he echoed throughout his speech. Goldin opened his lecture by defining NASA's role in terms broader than booms and rockets -- his definition included the question of "Are we alone in the universe?" and the demand for cheaper air and space travel.

Goldin reiterated the need for "high risk, high impact, revolutionary steps" and technologically advanced tools and resources to obtain such goals.

A recurring theme throughout the lecture was that NASA should renounce baby steps and aim high. Goldin spoke specifically about the short-term goals to send missions to Mars to bring back samples and to construct telescopes with the power to search farther.

He also discussed a 25-year goal to construct high-powered telescopes that can magnify the geological features of planets surrounding other stars.

Goldin also stressed the need to integrate human and robotic space missions and introduced the idea of developing more intelligent space vehicles. "We can have a more self-sufficient mission with robots doing the tough stuff," he said.

"The human astronauts can concentrate on the truly intelligent work."

Before these advanced missions can become a reality, Goldin explained, NASA must develop software that will gauge human reactions.

"We need to go farther with human exploration," Goldin said. "We will be sending astronauts to Mars. These missions will be going on for years and we need advanced technology."

Many students recognized Goldin's ambition and were intrigued by his vision for the future.

"I think it's great that NASA has Dan Goldin in the position that he's in because the United States has come to a point where our advances are only incremental," Hanszen College sophomore Vergel Cruz said. "We need the revolutionary changes that Goldin suggests. I think we all need to take a step back and evaluate where this country is going. NASA will continue to have a big part in this technological change," he said.

Lovett College freshman Mark Covington had a more skeptical view. "High goals -- wish us luck," he said.

President Malcolm Gillis and Goldin signed a statement of collaboration yesterday. Rice and NASA will work together on the development of nanotechnology materials and applications that could lead to a new era in space travel, especially fullerene fibers (or "nanotubes"). Discovered by Nobel Prize winner and Rice Professor Richard H. Smalley, the carbon fibers, although one-sixth the weight of steel and a billionth of a meter in diameter, are potentially 30 to 100 times stronger than steel.

This item appeared in the News section of the October 16, 1998 issue.