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-Raskyl t1_j6jm7el wrote

I always liked the quote about how nasa spent a bunch of money developing a pressurized ink cartridge to have a ball point pen that worked in space. And the Russians just used pencils.

Maybe get one of the fancy space pens. And then some nasa pencils to give the kids?

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BanditSixActual t1_j6lj17e wrote

Everyone used pencils at the beginning of the space program. NASA ordered some mechanical pencils because there were fears over the flammability of wooden pencils after the Apollo 1 fire. They paid something like $130 per pencil in 1965 money, and there was public outcry. Fisher developed the space pen with their own money and offered it to NASA, who paid approximately $2.40 per pen by buying in bulk. The Russians ordered them too and paid the same price.

Both space programs have used them ever since, and one arguably saved the Apollo 11 mission when the astronauts used one to fix a broken arming switch, without which, they could not have returned to earth.

Fisher supposedly spent 1 million developing and patenting the space pen. When you think about how many pens have sold for $50 at various aerospace museums over the decades, it was a solid investment.

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Abracadaver2000 t1_j6jrygz wrote

That's been well and truly debunked a long time ago. The reason NASA didn't use pencils is because graphite particles and electrical gear are not a good mix (#1), and the company that developed the pen did it at their own expense. NASA didn't foot the bill for R&D.

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-Raskyl t1_j6ki8zt wrote

Ok, that's also not true. Pencils will work just fine in space. Pencil graphite is mixed with clay and a bunch of other shit. Doesn't burn until like 1,000°c. And they aren't just making mass amounts of graphite dust by taking notes on shit.

And fine, nasa didn't spend the money, but millions were spent. And pencils do work just fine. They've literally been used by nasa and soyuz since the beginning of man's time in space.

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