The pencil wasn’t a great alternative for writing in house as a result of its tip may flake and break off, drifting in microgravity with the potential to hurt an astronaut or an tools
Legend has it that in the course of the top of the house race in the Sixties, NASA scientists figured that pens couldn’t operate in house. So, they spent thousands and thousands of {dollars} growing a pen that would write in house, whereas their Soviet counterparts used the common-or-garden pencil.
This story has been floating across the Internet for manner too lengthy. However, it’s only a delusion.
The fact
According to NASA historians, NASA astronauts additionally used pencils. In 1965, NASA ordered 34 mechanical pencils from Houston’s Tycam Engineering Manufacturing, Inc. on the price of $128.89 per pencil. When the general public received to learn about these charges, there was an outcry, and NASA needed to discover one thing less expensive for its astronauts to make use of.
The pencil loses out
The pencil wasn’t a great alternative for writing in house as a result of its tip may flake and break off, drifting in microgravity with the potential to hurt an astronaut or an tools. Apart from this, pencils are flammable, and NASA needed to keep away from something flammable aboard a spacecraft.
And the pen?
Regular pens that work on Earth didn’t work in house as a result of they depend on gravity for the circulate of ink to the nib. This was understood fairly early by scientists and therefore astronauts used pencils. But with each the pencil and the pen creating points, what did NASA lastly resort to?
The saviour
Around the time NASA was embroiled in the mechanical pencils controversy, Paul C. Fisher of the Fisher Pen Co. designed a ballpoint pen that would work in house. His firm invested a million {dollars} to fund, design, and patent the pen by itself.
Fisher’s pen operated seamlessly, not simply in house, but additionally in a weightless surroundings, underwater, in different liquids, and in temperatures starting from -50 F to +400 F.
The firm supplied the pen to NASA, however the house company was hesitant to purchase it because of the mechanical pencil controversy.
However, a couple of years later, after rigorous testing, NASA agreed to equip its astronauts with the house pen. The house company purchased 400 pens from Fisher. And a 12 months later, the Russians additionally ordered 100 pens and 1,000 ink cartridges to make use of on their Soyuz house missions. Both NASA and the Soviet house company acquired a 40% low cost on bulk buy of the pens, paying about $2.39 per pen.
Over the years, Fisher’s firm has created totally different house pens, that are nonetheless utilized by NASA and the Soviet house company.
If you want to get your fingers on certainly one of these house pens, it will value you roughly $50.
