We are writing in response to the Feb. 21 letter from Rob Morse. In it, he asks ". . . why can they (the Japanese) produce a videocassette recorder and make trillions of dollars and we can send a space probe to Venus to look around for a while and spend trillions of dollars doing that."

We noticed that the letter was entitled "Brains, not bombs." Mr. Morse, NASA has nothing at all to do with "bombs." We can appreciate your wish that the U.S. spend more on national development and less on national defense. However, you have chosen a poor target in attacking our space program, which has done more to help this country's development than many other government programs that cost far more money. The Magellan probe to Venus, to borrow your example, has done a great deal more than just "look around for a while." It has already taught us more about the greenhouse effect than we have learned in 20 years of "Earth Days." Weather forecasting, while not always perfect, would be imposssible without the aid of satellites developed by the United States. Ask any one of Penn State's meteorology majors. It worries us that you can still equate these kinds of projects with waste and bombs, especially considering the fact that you may one day be teaching these untruths to America's students.

In fact, our space program can help boost our economy and technology far beyond the level of producing programmable videocassette recorders. NASA technology is helping to grow and store food more efficiently, to produce more energy with less pollution, and to create lighter, stronger alloys and materials for industry. We've learned that valuable resources, which are rapidly dwindling here on earth, exist in abundance elsewhere in the solar system. These developments can augment our economy ten-fold.

Once again, we agree that America's economic focus is not as competitive as that of Japan. We propose a solution: Stop wasting money on military nonsense and invest in the final frontier instead. This is where the future lies.