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Space pen: Difference between revisions
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During the heady days of the space program, technologists hit upon a snag: in zero-gravity, a ballpoint pen will not work as it relies on gravity pushing ink down under the ball mechanism. This is why you cannot write upside down with a biro. | During the heady days of the space program, technologists hit upon a snag: in zero-gravity, a ballpoint pen will not work as it relies on gravity pushing ink down under the ball mechanism. This is why you cannot write upside down with a biro. | ||
What to do, for our brave astronauts of the sky? Well, Americans being the entrepreneurial types they are, NASA commissioned a chap by the name of Fisher<ref>Actually, Fisher just went out and built it and offered it to NASA, entrepreneur-fashion.</ref> to design a pen that would work in zero gravity. The result, after hundreds of thousands of dollars of research and development, was the [https://www.spacepen.com/about-us.aspx Fisher Space Pen], a device so clever that it was used reliably on missions from Apollo 7 onwards and and can still be purchased from good retailers today. | What to do, for our brave astronauts of the sky? Well, Americans being the entrepreneurial types they are, NASA commissioned a chap by the name of Fisher<ref>Actually, Fisher just went out and built it and offered it to NASA, entrepreneur-fashion.</ref> to design a pen that would work in zero gravity. The result, after hundreds of thousands of dollars (''millions'' in today’s money!) of research and development, was the [https://www.spacepen.com/about-us.aspx Fisher Space Pen], a device so clever that it was used reliably on missions from Apollo 7 onwards and and can still be purchased from good retailers today. | ||
Meanwhile, in Irkutsk, the Russian space program had the same problem. Their man, Gorsky, came up with a simpler solution: sent their cosmonauts into space with ''[[pencil]]s''. | |||
===Errata=== | ===Errata=== | ||
The story is only partly true — or false, if you | The story is only partly true — or ''false'', if you accept [https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-write-stuff/ Snopes]’ categorisation — and the reasons behind the parts that are right are far more subtle. But all fiction has the power to educate | ||
It ''had'' occurred to NASA to use pencils: indeed it had used pencils on all missions up to Apollo 7. However the graphite in pencil lead has a habit of flaking, which presented some respiratory risks and could potentially interfere with instruments. Also, after the Apollo 1 fire, which killed three astronauts on the launch pad, NASA was interested removing flammable objects — like wooden pencils — from the cockpit. | It ''had'' occurred to NASA to use pencils: indeed it had used pencils on all missions up to Apollo 7. However the graphite in pencil lead has a habit of flaking, which presented some respiratory risks and could potentially interfere with instruments. Also, after the Apollo 1 fire, which killed three astronauts on the launch pad, NASA was interested removing flammable objects — like wooden pencils — from the cockpit. | ||