22 Apr
2005
22 Apr
'05
1:33 a.m.
On Thu, Apr 21, 2005 at 06:07:47PM -0500, Kapteyn, Rob wrote:
Nice story, but at the bit about how " NASA started a huge research
project" is wrong. The "Fisher Space Pen" was not developed by NASA, but
by a company making pens (Fisher) and they not only developed it on their
own dime, but also sold them to NASA at a few dollars per pen.
And for using pencils in space: Having loose bits of nicely conductive
graphite dust floating around the interiour of your space vehicle is a
seriously bad idea since this is just asking for random shorts in your
onboard electronics.
Regards,
Alex.
--
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison
Randy
McLaughlin <cctalk at randy482.com> wrote:
I don't remember all the details but I read that while NASA always tried to
solve problems with $ and technology.
The Russians used something better: thought. The biggest problems were
heat and pressure. Solid state devices shut down when heated. The
spacecraft was open on the flight to Venus and sealed up before landing.
This kept the insides under vacuum which slowed down heat transference.
Smart, very smart.
Reminds me of joke I was told when I visited my relatives in Canada:
"One of the first big problems of manned space flight was that ball-point pens
would not work reliably in zero gravity.
NASA started a huge research project and after more than a year the 'space pen'
was developed.
This was a ball point pen that could write upside down and in zero gravity.
(BTW: These pens were sold to the public and widely advertised when I was a kid)
The russian cosmonauts, on the other hand, simply used a pencil :-)