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Forums - General Discussion - Nasa spends 2 billion dollars creating a pen that works in zero gravity!!!!

Yes, but a pen can explode, which allows it to double as a defense weapon against small, slow moving particles. NASA knew what it was doing.



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Then where would the astronauts be without ball point ink fumes...



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Do me a personal favour, and take the pen!



lol if this is a joke
wtf if this is real



hey NASA earns back quite a bit for their tech. Like their backup system for communications with the space shuttle, WalMart uses it for the inventory system.



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Aj_habfan said:
Do me a personal favour, and take the pen!

 

Lulz at the Seinfeld reference!



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Myth BUSTED!!!!

NASA Spent $12 Million For a Space Pen While the Russians Just Use Pencils-Fiction!

 

 

 

Summary of the eRumor
The message says that the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration spent ten years and $12 million developing a pen that writes in zero gravity for use by astronauts.  The pen will write upside down, underwater, on almost any surface and is functional at extremely hot and cold temperatures.  The Russians, however, filled the need for a space writing instrument by simply using pencils.

The Truth
For some people, it's sport to point out government waste and bureaucratic stupidity, but this story about the space pen won't provide ammunition for it.  The government did not fund the development of the pen, it did not cost $12 million to perfect, and neither the Americans nor the Russians consider it desirable to use pencils in space.  In fact, both Americans and Russians use the space pen for their flights.

The famous space pen, which is still a popular product today, was developed by Paul Fisher the founder of the Fisher pen company.  An engineer who improved ball point technology, he created his "bullet pen" in the 1940's, which became one of the best-selling pens of the Twentieth Century. Later, he perfected a pen that was sealed with pressure inside of the cartridge that made the ink to flow regardless of gravity.  It also worked in high and low temperature extremes, underwater, and wrote on many kinds of surfaces.  According to the Fisher Pen company, after extensive testing, NASA chose the pen in 1967 for use by Apollo astronauts and it's been a part of space travel ever since.  The company says it took Fisher about 2 years and $2 million to develop the space pen.  Prior to 1967, there were no pens that worked in space so there were pencils used, but there were concerns about pencil dust floating around the space capsules as well as fears that if the tip of a pencil broke off and drifted into the electronics, there would be problems.

 



 

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http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp



I knew it was fake



This is a myth... first of all they didn't want to use pencils because the nibs can break and get into important places.

Second of all a normal ballpoint pen would work perfectly well in space because there is NO gravity.

Biros don't work upside down (for very long) because gravity stops the ink running into the end.... but if there is no gravity at all they will work just fine because nothing is pulling the ink away. (gravity isn't needed to push the ink down because by vaccuum action the remaining ink just follows where the ink just escaped from)