The Space Pen

Emily just posted a link to a cool article on the Planetary Society blog, so thought I'd replicate it here for reference ^_^

"It takes a special pen to be used in space. For one thing, most ballpoint pens and all fountain pens use gravity assist to pull the ink down. Anyone who has tried to hold something against the wall and write on it has quickly found that they don’t get more than a few words before the pen runs dry. Furthermore, in the vacuum of space, the ink would evaporate and dry out and quit flowing. If the ink gets too cold, then it will get too thick to flow. If it gets too hot, then it will dry out and not flow. So, for a variety of reasons, ordinary pens can’t be used in space. According to an urban legend, NASA spent millions of dollars designing pens to fly in space, while the Soviet Union simply equipped their cosmonauts with pencils. Like so many urban legends, though, this one is false. NASA did not spend any money at all developing the pens. They purchased 400 of the pens for about $6 apiece. That’s a bit much for a pen, perhaps, but they are quite good pens. Eventually, NASA bought even more. The pens were used on Apollo missions, Skylab, and the Space Shuttle. And, eventually the Soviet Union began purchasing Fisher space pens for its cosmonauts. They are still used in space today."

Full Article

On a completely unrelated note, I can now drive! But I have no car. So.