Posts: 42981 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 10-12-2016 03:30 PM
Science Channel video
With zero gravity being the standard in space, how do astronauts solve the problem of writing things down if the pen is upside down? Uniquely made space pens!
Wehaveliftoff Member
Posts: 2343 From: Registered: Aug 2001
posted 10-12-2016 08:04 PM
Still favor the Russians first to implement simple solution: pencil. Far cheaper, too.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42981 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 10-12-2016 09:07 PM
Both the Soviets and the U.S. paid more per pencil then they did for the pens.
U.S. astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts used pencils until 1968. NASA's mechanical pencils cost $128.89 each. When NASA adopted the already developed Fisher pressurized pen, it paid $2.39 per pen (a 40 percent discount off retail; the same price the Soviets paid for the Fisher space pens a year later).