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 300o C. The Russians used a pencil.
Nasa are a litlle bit incompetents (romanian hackers hack there servers on regular time .... ) I like the part that Russians used a pencill ) funny one ...
well actual sum is 100 milions (not 12 bilions) but that actually doesn't matter - the real funny thing is as Gravereaper said that rusians still uses pencil .
i forgot how many kilometres of a line a pencil can draw, but i think NASA should have factored that in their project zero-gravity pen.. [here i go again, citing statistics.. ] funny though., had me laughing out loud at the office.
Yeah but I hate writing with pencils... If I had as much money as the US government, I'm sure I would've done the same thing to invest in pens. I hate how pencils write, feel, look, etc.. =\
haha thats quality, I was thinking as i was reading it what kinda pen could be used then thought when it said underwater about the film Italian job(new one) where hes writing on the safe underwater, hes using a pencil hehe
Mencia actually had a different take on it. (Senior Scientist) "Damnit. Pens don't work in 0g. We need to develop one that will." (Junior Scientist) "Sir? Why don't we just use a pencil?" (Senior Scientist) *Slap* "Dumb ass! Because we're ****ing AMERICA. When we want to use a pen we **** well make sure we can use a pen! Why don't we use a peeennnnciiilll. Cop out Bull****" Keep in mind, pencils often fade, where as water proof pen ink does not. Further, when in 0G, any graphite dust will wind up adding to the dust floating around the cockpit and any haze. Dust doesn't settle on the floor in 0g. Pencils must have their ends sharp, thus necessitating a pencil sharpener be on board. Guess what happens to the shavings and dust from that? Sharp pencil... thin space suit... no way to retract tip of pencil... bad idea. Where as being able to click the pen tip away is a good feature. If you can get the pen to write in space, it will be the superior tool in most instances. Considering the huge cost of the rest of the program, I don't see the pens as that big of an expenditure, especially as some of it was probably offset by tourists eventually buying the pens, and all the mail orders for space-pens. A lot of the technology we use every day now, but take for granted came out of the space program. Velcro? Space program. Disposable diapers? Space program (adult size was the original size). Electronics? A lot of it from the space program. And loads more. The huge expenditures of the military and the space program advance American technology by leaps and bounds. The -internet- was invented for the military (And not by Al Gore either).
This is a marvelous story to illustrate the perils of government waste; pity it's not true. NASA didn't have $12 billion to spend on anything when it first started sending astronauts into space in the early 1960s. The agency's entire budget for the 1960 was $500 million; by 1965, it was up to $5.2 billion, still not enough to throw billions away reinventing the ballpoint pen. Be that as it may, astronauts in the Apollo program did begin using a specially-designed zero-gravity pen in 1968 called the Fisher AG-7 Space Pen. Nitrogen-pressurized, the pen worked in "freezing cold, desert heat, underwater and upside down," as well as the weightlessness of outer space. It was developed not by NASA but by an enterprising individual, Paul C. Fisher, owner of the Fisher Space Pen Company. By his own account, Fisher spent "thousands of hours and millions of dollars" of his own in research and development; not billions. The Fisher Space Pen is still used by both American and Russian astronauts on every space flight, and you can buy one yourself direct from the company for a measly 50 bucks.
Why thank you SunCrafter. Do you happen to have a link to the compay website (not only for verification, but for potentially purchasing one of these amazing pens)?