On Saturday, October 25, 2003, at 03:42 AM, Randall Clague wrote:
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 18:01:13 -0700, Robert Walsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I was wondering about this. Here's the thing: my regular ball-point pen
doesn't work too well when it's used upside-down here on Earth (I
haven't yet managed to check it in orbit.) After a short while, it
starts to run dry and I need to hold it upright and shake it a few times
to get it started again. So those magic pens have a use down here at
least.
There's nothing magical about pens and microgravity.
Even if there was, the solution is still not to have a fancy 0g pen. Use a pencil, crayon, or felt tip marker. The whole "space pen" idea is a triumph of engineering over common sense. This solution also works for writing upside down. IIRC the early Russian flights used pencils - don't know what they use now.
They use pens. They (and the US) used to use pencils, but they got tired
of the graphite bits wandering around the cabin, shorting things out,
and getting in their eyes. Plus, graphite burns rather nicely in a 100%
O2 environment, and that's a nono for NASA after the Apollo fire. My
understanding, is that the Fisher pen company designed and made the pens
entirely on their own, after the Apollo incident, and offered them to
the govt, eating the development costs themselves.
-- Jim Richardson http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock A bureaucracy is like a septic tank -- all the really big shits float to the top.
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