<i> A look at noteworthy addresses in the Southland.</i>

On the Space Program

Goldin: “We’ve been out to the planets, but we know so little . . . though we’ve done so much . . . .(Today) we need a complete resurgence of our space program. . . . We have to open up the program to diversity and multiplicity. But the program as it’s been has been out of balance between infrastructure and human space flight and science is also out of balance between big and small. We have this concept in our minds that to get out to the outer planets is going to have to be big . . . let’s prove that we can build small spacecraft that are so robust that they can do 75% of the missions to the most difficult places in the solar system.”

Sagan: “I raise the question that in the progression of scientific exploration there are circumstances in which the obvious next step in scientific questions is more elaborate than what preceded it. . . . Let’s make sure we don’t lose out on superb scientific opportunities that maybe come along once every 10 or 15 or 20 years.”

On the Future of Space Exploration

Goldin: “As we enter a new millennia and we look at the nations of this world . . . think of the possibilities of bringing nations together on some very, very difficult venture where we might actually go without planting our flags separately, but we would have an integrated flag planted together for all humankind. I think that’s a very, very positive reason for going.”

Sagan: “That is an argument which I fervently pushed for in the closing years of the Cold War, because there it seems that a shared high technology goal, United States and the Soviet Union, working together on behalf of the human species for change with that same rocket technology that put at risk everybody on Earth, was a supremely worthy goal.”

Looking Ahead

Tuesday: William E. Franklin, president of Weyerhauser Far East Ltd., on “The U.S.-Japan Relationship: Will It Always Be Difficult?” at the Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, 11:30 a.m. Call (213) 624-0945.

Tuesday: Robert M. Gates, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, on “Intelligence Issues and Challenges,” at the Sheraton Grande Hotel, noon. Sponsored by Town Hall of California. Call (213) 628-8141.