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Author
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Topic: True or False ?
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ALAIN
Member Posts: 355
From: GENT, Belgium
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 10-09-2002 01:58 AM
  
Reading about the costs of the STS-112 camera on the External Tank I came up with this;
When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity.
To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 Celsius.
The Russians used a pencil.
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Rizz
Member Posts: 1208
From: Upcountry, Maui, Hawaii
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 10-09-2002 02:38 AM
$12 Billion instead of a pencil -my guess is TRUE.  What year was the Sharpie invented? [This message has been edited by Rizz (edited October 09, 2002).] |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 10-09-2002 08:56 AM
This is an urban legend. The pen in question was developed privately by the Fisher space pen. Prior to its introduction, the astronauts used pencils and felt tip pens. You can read about the history of the Fisher Space Pen here: http://www.spacepen.com/usa/history/index.htm |
WAWalsh
Member Posts: 809
From: Cortlandt Manor, NY
Registered: May 2000
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posted 10-09-2002 10:23 AM
As Robert indicated, false. I also believe that pencils were taken up (faded memory of Pete Conraad making penciled notes from GT5). |
Rodina
Member Posts: 836
From: Lafayette, CA
Registered: Oct 2001
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posted 10-09-2002 01:19 PM
It's a terrific story--and one worth repeating--but of course, untrue.More's the point any excess spending on a space pen would have happened by Congress passing legislation forcing NASA "To Develop a Zero-G Pen In My Congressional District To Help My Donors And For Other Purposes" not because NASA was being unpractical.
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BLACKARROW
unregistered
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posted 10-09-2002 06:12 PM
I have a note in a scrapbook which I put together in 1969 indicating that the Fisher space pen was developed for about £500,000 (probably about $1,500,000 at the time, or maybe $15,000,000 at today's prices). It was, at the time, the only item of equipment used by both the American and Russian space programmes. Even if my teenage scribblings weren't entirely accurate, I'm confident I'm nearer the mark than the ludicrous references to $12 billion (which I also saw quoted recently - for the first time.) I suspect this is the sort of nonsense which the "Moon-hoax" nutters pass around. (I assume they accept that astronauts have been into orbit!) |
rjurek349
Member Posts: 1190
From: Northwest Indiana
Registered: Jan 2002
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posted 10-09-2002 06:15 PM
FYI. Just for factoid purposes, I can personally confirm the pencil and felt pen markings on GT5 from the multiple Reentry Checklist pages that recently passed through my hands. Lots of notations in pencil -- more so than the felt pens (such as on the consumables charts -- water and solid foods).Tracking station charts and some of the checklists had felt tip markings (some darker, some lighter as the mission wore on...) Rich |
Rodina
Member Posts: 836
From: Lafayette, CA
Registered: Oct 2001
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posted 10-09-2002 07:57 PM
The total bill of the Apollo program was about $25B (in unadjusted dollars). That half of that went to develop a PEN is just silly. (I would believe $1.5M, however - I think Gillette spent something like $100M developing and launching its ludicrously successful Gillette Sensor razor). |
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