Fact or Fiction?: NASA Spent Millions to Develop a Pen that Would Write in Space, whereas the Soviet Cosmonauts Used a Pencil – Scientific America: During the height of the space race in the 1960s, legend has it, NASA scientists realized that pens could not function in space. They needed to figure out another way for the astronauts to write things down. So they spent years and millions of taxpayer dollars to develop a pen that could put ink to paper without gravity. But their crafty Soviet counterparts, so the story goes, simply handed their cosmonauts pencils.
This tale with its message of simplicity and thrift–not to mention a failure of common sense in a bureaucracy–floats around the Internet, hopping from in-box to in-box, and even surfaced during a 2002 episode of the West Wing. But, alas, it is just a myth.
Paul C. Fisher and his company, the Fisher Pen Company, reportedly invested $1 million to create what is now commonly known as the space pen. None of this investment money came from NASA’s coffers.
According to an Associated Press report from February 1968, NASA ordered 400 of Fisher’s antigravity ballpoint pens for the Apollo program. A year later, the Soviet Union ordered 100 pens and 1,000 ink cartridges to use on their Soyuz space missions, said the United Press International. The AP later noted that both NASA and the Soviet space agency received the same 40 percent discount for buying their pens in bulk. They both paid $2.39 per pen instead of $3.98.
urban legend but still a brilliant fable
Why did it take a million dollars to make a pressurized ink cartridge?
I could probably have come up with the basic idea but maybe it took a lot of R&D to get the ink right (so it didn’t squirt out.)
“…its message of simplicity and thrift–not to mention a failure of common sense in a bureaucracy…”
Factors that appeal to the particularly American trait of faux-populist anti-intellectualism.
What did they use before they bought the pens? If the pens did not come availabel the Russians would have continued to use pencils.
I believe they used grease pencils. They don’t need sharpening.
#2, Greg Allen, yes, the thixotropic ink was a major development, as well as the machined tungsten carbide ball and housing, gasket, etc. See here:
http://www.spacepen.com/Public/Technology/index.cfm
http://history.nasa.gov/spacepen.html
And they will write through darned near everything, even upside down.
I lived in Russia for a bit, and Russians love this story. They love to tell Americans how smart they are as opposed to our big bureaucracy. Also, for changing the target of a nuke, it takes us hours to reprogram one remotely, but they just have a guy run down the walkway to the missle and change the gyros on it. Ah, those ingenius Russians.
Urban legend?
BS!
I never heard anything about NASA spending money to develop the Space Pen. I thought it was common knowledge that Fisher developed the product.
I would think using a pencil in space would be a bad thing since the pencil led would flake off and break off and float around inside the vessel in low/no grav. Especially when you used the eraser! Pens are more clean and wouldn’t cause a mess like that.
#3
And don’t forget that researchers at NASA had plenty of cash to burn for research whereas the Russians instead had Vodka to keep them inspired.
Happy 420 everybody!
Yes, the Space Pen…
I remember it being mentioned in the movie, Three O’Clock High when the weak kid Jerry is talking to the high school babe while he’s working the school store. He’s showering praise on what a great pen it is, tells her, “You can even write upside down so you can do homework in bed!” — She says, “I don’t do homework in bed.”
Oooh, she had this soldering sultry sexuality about her. Of course, I was a horny teen when I saw it…
I like the fact that the russians end of buying the same pen and paid the same price to the Fisher company. Commerce levels out everything.
I have a Fisher Space Pen at hand – an Xmas present bought at the Smithsonian gift shop in Washington last December. On the packaging it proudly states that Dr. Fisher and co. paid for the entire development costs themselves, and not one penny of Gov’t money was used.
Doesn’t the fact that USSR lost the space race AND the cold war defy the point of glurge like this? Even if NASA did pay for the development of the space pen, which they didn’t, the moral of the story would seem to vindicate them for doing so!
Having said that, I love my fisher pens. I’m never more than three feet away from at least one of them.
I agree with #14. Fisher pens are great. They’re significantly better than any other ball point pen I’ve ever used. At first I was very, very skeptical. I thought ball point pens were all the same. Not true. Fisher pens (and refills) are better.
Many years ago I worked for a very large writing instrument (pen) maker. We carried a line of pens that cost less then a dollar each and did everything the Fisher Space Pen did. I know, I did the testing.
Our ink was several times thicker then ordinary ball point ink. That caused the ink to sit on top of the paper instead of soaking into the paper. The oxygen in the air caused a catalytic reaction that would harden the ink. The pens could write upside down all day with no problem. If the ink was allowed a few seconds to cure then it could even be erased ! It was this erasable part that was used to market the pen.
The only down side was that the life expectancy of the ink was shorter then that of regular ink. While all ink will crystallize, this ink did so in about two years instead of the four to five years expected from regular ink. NOTE: Ink doesn’t dry out in the refill, the crystals prevent it from flowing over the ball.
Probably too late to get a reply, but here goes anyway:::
#16, Mr. Fusion, Shaeffer Pens? And thanks for the info on crystallizing inks.
#17, Nope, it was PaperMate and the EraserMate line of pens.
Now if they can only bust the myth of the $700 toilet seat.
#17, #18, Mr. Fusion, you must be prescient, since you managed to reply to my question almost 3 hours before I posted it !!
Comment by BubbaRay — 4/21/2007 @ 12:59 pm
Comment by Mr. Fusion — 4/21/2007 @ 10:06 pm
wow dude
just wow
12 59 to 10 06 is about 9 hours.
learn about time dude