Mars Mission

It seems that Brian Stonehill feels that all the cute names that NASA had for the Mars mission (Commentary, July 9) were part of a deliberate, evil plot by NASA solely to get taxpayers’ dollars.

It seems that Stonehill needs to get out of his English department at Pomona College and walk around. What Stonehill would find is that all people (not just evil NASA engineers) have a tendency to anthropomorphize anything. Working in a university myself, I’m aware how some departments become jealous of other departments that get a larger share of the university funds. The fact is, an English department doesn’t have the same financial requirements as such departments as engineering, chemistry, physics or even sports. The computers don’t need to be as powerful and you don’t need both a lecture hall and a lab.

As a writer, his allegories are almost as cute as what the NASA engineers have come up with, but I recommend he doesn’t try to write science fiction, as he doesn’t understand the heart of science.

GARY S. COYNE

Los Angeles

* Stonehill is absolutely right. NASA is using Shakespearean technology to sell its toys to the American taxpayers. It is now time to remove NASA from our wallets. NASA has proven itself to be more about spectacle and sales than useful discovery. Barnacle Bill? Come on. We deserve more for such enormous amounts of useful money.

STEVEN WISE

Santa Monica

* Forget the Dodgers, the Lakers and those other teams; our greatest team is at JPL. They proved that with their successful mission to Mars. All the members of the Mars Pathfinder team are the genuine all-stars.

JOSEPH H. MacDONALD

Long Beach

* Now that JPL scientists have fixed Sojourner’s modem from 119 million miles away so that they can now communicate with it on Mars, can someone please tell me how to get my car phone to work on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu?

JOHN R. FUCHS

Pacific Palisades

* Re Mars floods: Wasn’t Earth lucky to have had Noah and the ark?

BERNARD REZNICK

Beverly Hills