A new version of rasmol (2.7.4) is going to be released soon. Upstreamhas added a dependency to a rather obscure library, which the build system actually tries to download during build. This is of course not how it should be done in Debian. I've packaged the library in question, CBFlib (see ITP bug #467655), and would like to see it in the archive before the 2.7.4 release becomes actual. Would you be interested in sponsoring it?
If you have no special interest in the "obscure library" I volunteer to maintain it in Debian. I would also make sure it gets sponsored. I have a special interest in the cbf library (CIF binary format, esssentially used for X-ray images) because I am in the field (X-ray crystallography) and an application I am working on depends on it.
I have not checked out your version of rasmol, and I don't offhand understand why it would need cbflib.
Cheers, Morten