Zero Gravity - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Godzilla · 02-05-2006, 02:11 PM

When NASA started sending up astronauts, they quickly
discovered that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity. To
combat this problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion
developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside-down, on almost
any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below
freezing to over 300 C.

The Russians used a pencil. Your taxes are due again--enjoy paying
them.

CSflim · 02-06-2006, 01:19 AM

First of all....$12 billion!!???? Are you insane? That figure has certainly gone up a tad since I last read this anecdote! Second of all;

Snopes says......FALSE

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

Quote:

Claim: NASA spent millions of dollars developing an "astronaut pen" which would work in outer space while the Soviets solved the same problem by simply using pencils.

Status: False.

Examples:

Quote:

[Collected on the Internet, 1999]

Thought for the day.

During the space race back in the 1960's, NASA was faced with a major problem. The astronaut needed a pen that would write in the vacuum of space. NASA went to work. At a cost of $1.5 million they developed the "Astronaut Pen". Some of you may remember. It enjoyed minor success on the commercial market.

The Russians were faced with the same dilemma.

They used a pencil.

[The Moscow Times, 2000]

There is a charming anecdote that roams from e-mail box to e-mail box around the world about how, at the height of the space race, the Americans and Soviets approached the same problem: how an astronaut (or cosmonaut) could use a pen to write in zero gravity.

As the story goes, the Americans spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on an ambitious, gravity-immune ballpoint pen; they successfully developed such a pen; and this pen went on to become a massive commercial success in the private sector. The Soviets - with the simple elegance their scientists are so rightly famed for - opted instead to use a pencil.

The lesson of this anecdote is a valid one, that we sometimes expend a great deal of time, effort, and money to create a "high-tech" solution to a problem, when a perfectly good, cheap, and simple solution is right before our eyes. The anecdote offered above isn't a real example of this syndrome, however. Fisher did ultimately develop a pressurized pen for use by NASA astronauts (now known as the famous "Fisher Space Pen"), but both American and Soviet space missions initially used pencils, NASA did not seek out Fisher and ask them to develop a "space pen," Fisher did not charge NASA for the cost of developing the pen, and the Fisher pen was eventually used by both American and Soviet astronauts.

Here's how Fisher themselves described it:

NASA never asked Paul C. Fisher to produce a pen. When the astronauts began to fly, like the Russians, they used pencils, but the leads sometimes broke and became a hazard by floating in the [capsule's] atmosphere where there was no gravity. They could float into an eye or nose or cause a short in an electrical device. In addition, both the lead and the wood of the pencil could burn rapidly in the pure oxygen atmosphere. Paul Fisher realized the astronauts needed a safer and more dependable writing instrument, so in July 1965 he developed the pressurized ball pen, with its ink enclosed in a sealed, pressurized ink cartridge. Fisher sent the first samples to Dr. Robert Gilruth, Director of the Houston Space Center. The pens were all metal except for the ink, which had a flash point above 200°C. The sample Space Pens were thoroughly tested by NASA. They passed all the tests and have been used ever since on all manned space flights, American and Russian. All research and developement costs were paid by Paul Fisher. No development costs have ever been charged to the government.

Because of the fire in Apollo 1, in which three Astronauts died, NASA required a writing instrument that would not burn in a 100% oxygen atmosphere. It also had to work in the extreme conditions of outer space:

1. In a vacuum.
2. With no gravity.
3. In hot temperatures of +150°C in sunlight and also in the cold shadows of space where the temperatures drop to -120°C

(NASA tested the pressurized Space Pens at -50°C, but because of the residential [sic] heat in the pen it also writes for many minutes in the cold shadows.)

Fisher spent over one million dollars in trying to perfect the ball point pen before he made his first successful pressurized pens in 1965. Samples were immediately sent to Dr. Robert Gilruth, Manager of the Houston Space Center, where they were thoroughly tested and approved for use in Space in September 1965. In December 1967 he sold 400 Fisher Space Pens to NASA for $2.95 each.

Lead pencils were used on all Mercury and Gemini space flights and all Russian space flights prior to 1968. Fisher Space Pens are more dependable than lead pencils and cannot create the hazard of a broken piece of lead floating through the gravity-less atmosphere.

Sightings: This legend was mentioned in an episode of NBC's The West Wing TV series ("We Killed Yamamoto"; original air date 15 May 2002).

Additional information:

The Fisher Space Pen The Fisher Space Pen

Last updated: 15 May 2002

itch vaccine · 02-07-2006, 03:26 AM

omg

wrong forum for facts CSFilm

tilted.. HUMOR?

rlbond86 · 02-07-2006, 10:23 PM

yes, this is the humor forum. it's not true, but it is a funny joke.

cyrnel · 02-07-2006, 10:29 PM

That dollar value has certainly increased faster than inflation. Keep the humor with one toe in reality and it works better. Thanks CSflim.

Godzilla · 02-08-2006, 01:41 PM

Sorry if this was a problem. It was intended as a joke, not something to be taken seriously.

02-05-2006, 02:11 PM	#1 (permalink)
Godzilla Insane Location: austin, TX	Zero Gravity When NASA started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat this problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside-down, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 C. The Russians used a pencil. Your taxes are due again--enjoy paying them. __________________ Coming out of an ocean near you...

02-07-2006, 03:26 AM	#3 (permalink)
itch vaccine Psycho Location: on my spinning computer chair	omg wrong forum for facts CSFilm tilted.. HUMOR? __________________ "When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours. That's relativity." - Albert Einstein

02-07-2006, 10:29 PM	#5 (permalink)
cyrnel Adequate Location: In my angry-dome.	That dollar value has certainly increased faster than inflation. Keep the humor with one toe in reality and it works better. Thanks CSflim. __________________ There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

02-08-2006, 01:41 PM	#6 (permalink)
Godzilla Insane Location: austin, TX	Sorry if this was a problem. It was intended as a joke, not something to be taken seriously. __________________ Coming out of an ocean near you...

02-07-2006, 10:23 PM	#4 (permalink)
rlbond86 Insane	yes, this is the humor forum. it's not true, but it is a funny joke.