Hawai'i hopes to become a place for serious investment in space exploration with an agreement signed Tuesday with the California-based NASA Ames Research Center.

The agreement to "investigate opportunities for collaboration" on space projects isn't about either the state or NASA spending any money; it's more about changing the state's reputation, Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday.

"As you know, we've had such great success promoting ourselves as the world's greatest place to take a vacation. (But) it has worked to our detriment when we talk about serious issues, serious business issues or technical or scientific issues and an agreement like this ... says to the world, 'This is a place to be taken very seriously,' " she said.

Lingle said a change in the world's perception of Hawai'i is even more important as NASA's $16 billion annual spending on space exploration has been outpaced by private-sector spending, which now stands at $80 billion.

Hawai'i has long been known as one of the best spots on the globe for looking deep into space through telescopes operated by astronomers from about a dozen countries atop Haleakala on Maui and Mauna Kea on the Big Island. The two inactive volcanoes' top observatories also provide an edge to astronomers at the University of Hawai'i, who have access to those telescopes as well as the university's own facilities at the summits.

While people in the industry and academia may know of the work being done at the Islands' state university, many people outside Hawai'i don't, said Lingle, who has been promoting a package of bills in the state Legislature to expand science and math education and develop new technology businesses in the Islands.

Countries throughout Asia and the Pacific, including India, China, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea, are developing space programs, putting Hawai'i in an important region for the space industry, said S. Pete Worden, director of NASA Ames Research Center.

Potential space-related industries include space tourism, communications, conducting biological research in space's zero gravity, tapping the moon for solar energy and installing lunar Internet cameras to recreate the experience on Earth of visiting the moon, he said.

The agreement, called a "memorandum of understanding," will enable officials to begin discussing specific areas of collaboration with the state, he said.

From 1990 until 1994, former Gov. John Waihee's administration spent about $8 million to develop a commercial satellite-launching facility in Ka'u on the Big Island. The project was abandoned after opposition by environmentalists and community activists.