Time for some levity

**Rick Potter** · 03-27-2021, 2:06 AM

Dave Anderson

I just noticed that I have been following this thread daily for over a year. Just want to thank you (and all the posters) for putting a little sunshine in my life, during a diffiicult year.

Rick Potter

**Bert Kemp** · 03-27-2021, 2:43 AM

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, Congress approved a program and NASA scientists spent a decade and over $165 million developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, on almost any surface and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 C.

The Russians used a pencil . . .

**Lee Schierer** · 03-27-2021, 8:33 AM

Originally Posted by Bert Kemp

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, Congress approved a program and NASA scientists spent a decade and over $165 million developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, on almost any surface and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 C.

The Russians used a pencil . . .

According to Scientific American: "Paul C. Fisher and his business, Fisher Pen Company, had invested a reported $1 million (none of it from NASA) to create what is now commonly known as the space pen. The device, patented in 1965, could write upside down, in frigid or roasting conditions (down to –50 degrees Fahrenheit or up to 400 degrees F), and even underwater or submersed in other liquids. If too hot, though, the ink turned green instead of its normal blue.

International Agreement

An Associated Press dispatch from February 1968 reported that NASA ordered 400 of Fisher's antigravity ballpoint pens for the Apollo moon mission program. A year later the Soviet Union ordered 100 pens and 1,000 ink cartridges to use on their Soyuz space missions, the United Press International said. 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—nowhere near millions."