THE CRAPBOOK

The Space Pen

October 20, 2008 · 20 Comments

My brother visited a cousin of mine in the US. My cousin is settled at Washington DC.. My brothers went to see the Air and Space Museum, and then my cousin displayed his special ‘Space Pen’. This is one pen, he explained that could work under zero gravity. It cost the government some money to do research and make the ’space pen’. The research started when the astronauts found out that they cannot use the normal ball-point pen under zero gravity.

After an hour lecture on the Pen, displaying 360 view of it. My brother said “I think they should have used a pencil instead”

My brother had received this forward, but my cousin definitely has not.

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

But is this true? Apparently not! Read this.

Categories: General
Tagged: ,