Ball Point Pens

When NASA started sending astronauts into space, they quickly discovered that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat this problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 million developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside-down, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300° C.




The Russians used a pencil.
Your taxes are due in April -- enjoy paying them.

 

Not that the "guvmint" is against wasting money, but they apparently didn't this time. Several references stated that NASA bought Fisher pens -- developed privately -- for about $6 ea. Apparently the Russkis eventually did the same.

Pencils are the obvious thought, but they break, need to be sharpened, and produce 'litter'.

hj

 

Not mechanical pencils....

 

Believe it or not pencil lead isn't really lead, but a mixture of carbon and clay and other stuff. In a pinch, an old Elmer showed me how to make a resistor for an old radio by cutting a pencil down to the right length.

Point (heh) being, the engineers may have decided that tiny chunks of conductive material floating around in a pure oxygen, weightless environment and could settle in switches or somewhere else it shouldn't.

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I kinda posted this as a morning chuckle

 

The way I see it most of the lead was used from Girls in school, when you asked them out and they didn't want to go , they just stabbed you with a pencil, and that told me I didn't want anything to do with that girl ( ever). Good laugh Hank