Space pen
Warning — another in the JC’s collection of amusing but apocryphal stories about space flight. This one an excellent fable for shutting up technolocal evangelist types.
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The design of organisations and products
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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 to push the ink down into 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, being keen supporters of the entrepreneurial private sector, NASA commissioned a chap by the name of Fisher[1] 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 Fisher Space Pen, a device so clever that it was used reliably on missions from Apollo 7 onward, and and can still be purchased from good retailers today.
Meanwhile, in Irkutsk, the Russian space program had the same problem. Their man, Maxim Gorsky, came up with a simpler solution: the Russians sent their cosmonauts into space with pencils.
Errata
The story is only partly true — or false, if you accept 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.
But still.
See also
- The redoubtable Snopes account of this “urban legend”
- Reg technology
- Good luck, Mr. Gorsky
- SR-71 speed check
References
- ↑ Actually, Fisher just went out and built it and offered it to NASA, entrepreneur-fashion.