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Did You Know? - Russian Space Pen

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When NASA first started sending astronauts into space, they realized that the ball-point pen would not work at zero gravity LE LLI A million dollar investment and two years of tests resulted in a pen that could write in space, upside down, on almost any surface and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300°c When confronted with the same problem the Russians used a pencil basilton In the early years of space flight, both Russians and Americans used pencils in space. Unfortunately, pencil lead is made of graphite, a highly conductive material. Snapped graphite leads and particles in zero gravity are hugely problematic, as they will get sucked into the air ventilation or electronic equipment, easily causing shorts or fires in the pure oxygen environment of a capsule. After the fire in Apollo 1 which killed all the astronauts on board, NASA required a writing instrument that wasn't a fire hazard. Fisher spent over a million dollars (of his own money) creating a pressurized ball point pen, which NASA bought at $2.95 each. The Russian space program also switched over from pencils shortly after. 40 years later snide morons on the internet still snigger about it, because snide morons on the internet never know what they are talking about.

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Comissar_skelus

Comissar_skelus

Apr 20, 2014 at 02:30PM EDT

#rekt

+95

roberthaha

roberthaha

Apr 21, 2014 at 04:51PM EDT

+39

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