03 Dec 08
During the space race between the soviets and the americans, it was discovered that normal pens do not work in space.
So the americans spent millions of dollars and came up with a pen that works in space, underwater, upside down, and with a long life span.
The soviets used a pencil.
03 Dec 08
Originally posted by ZahlanziAs reported to me when I worked on the Apollo at Goddard Space Flight Center (Apollo tracking and timing) in 1970.
During the space race between the soviets and the americans, it was discovered that normal pens do not work in space.
So the americans spent millions of dollars and came up with a pen that works in space, underwater, upside down, and with a long life span.
The soviets used a pencil.
03 Dec 08
1 edit
Originally posted by FabianFnasI thought it was incredibly ironic when I first heard the story, for sure.
Low tech rules...
I remember at the time, there was actually a something like million dollar development of a pressurized pen for astronauts and I think that was the genesis of the story. It was pretty stupid in hindsight. Maybe the planners were thinking about those terrible graphite dust particles gumming up the spacecraft after all those thousands of pages of reports needed🙂
Anyway, now all you need is a Sharpie, which is just a felt pad wetted with ink so gravity doesn't even play into it.
03 Dec 08
Originally posted by sonhouseActually, I heard that a normal biro will work quite happily in zero gravity and the entire story was an urban legend.
I thought it was incredibly ironic when I first heard the story, for sure.
I remember at the time, there was actually a something like million dollar development of a pressurized pen for astronauts and I think that was the genesis of the story. It was pretty stupid in hindsight. Maybe the planners were thinking about those terrible graphite dust particles ...[text shortened]... ed is a Sharpie, which is just a felt pad wetted with ink so gravity doesn't even play into it.
Can't recall the source of the debunking though, so I'll google...
... and come up with this link [http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/s/spacepen.htm] which debunks the story but does say that such a pen was required by both sides in the race.
Some more pages that say it is an urban legend:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_zero_gravity_pen.htm
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
http://www.geckoandfly.com/2007/10/18/nasa-and-the-zero-gravity-pen/
http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/science//item/nasa_expensive_space_pen_russian_pencil
This Nasa page [http://history.nasa.gov/spacepen.html] corroborates the previous link.
The first page of the Google search has no links actually supporting the story.
--- Penguin