The lander's name refers to 19th century astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, best known for describing the surface features of Mars.
The Brera Observatory hosted the astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli for four decades, and the Orto Botanico di Brera is a historic botanical garden located behind the Pinacoteca.
Howard mentions cylinders landing in London, Paris, St. Louis, and Texas (referring to other stories from Global Dispatches) and also mentions the irony of Martians landing in Providence's Italian section when it was Giovanni Schiaparelli who discovered the Martian canals.
Don Giovanni | Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina | Giovanni Bellini | Giovanni Riggi | Giovanni Boccaccio | Giovanni Battista Pergolesi | Giovanni Battista Tiepolo | Giovanni Battista Guarini | Giovanni | Giovanni Trapattoni | Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi | Giovanni Gabrieli | Giovanni Falcone | Elsa Schiaparelli | Villa San Giovanni | San Giovanni in Persiceto | Giovanni Verga | Giovanni van Bronckhorst | Giovanni Tamagno | Giovanni Pacini | Giovanni Battista Pescetti | Giovanni Papini | Giovanni Hidalgo | Giovanni Domenico Cassini | Giovanni de' Medici | Giovanni Bottesini | Giovanni Battista Riccioli | Giovanni Zenatello | Giovanni Visconti | Giovanni Schiaparelli |
She also was a great-grandniece of Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer who believed he had discovered the supposed canals of Mars, and a second cousin, once removed, of art expert Bernard Berenson (1865–1959) and his sister Senda Berenson (1868–1954), an athlete and educator who was one of the first two women elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.