Posted on 05/01/2006 5:31:20 PM PDT by KevinDavis
Everybody has heard of the infamous Space Pen.
Space has its urban legends of course, and the Million Dollar Space Pen is one of the more enduring ones. It is neither as outlandish nor as unbelievable as the story about faking the Moon landings, and even though it seems more credible than a massive government conspiracy, it is probable that fewer people have heard it.
The story goes like this: in the 1960s, NASA astronauts discovered that their pens did not work in zero gravity. So like good engineers, they went to work and designed a wonder pen. It worked upside down. It worked in vacuum. It worked in zero gravity. It even worked underwater! And it only cost a million dollars!
The crafty Russians used a pencil.
(Excerpt) Read more at thespacereview.com ...
I own two of those pens and love them!
The internet has had exactly the opposite effect of its stereotype for misinformation and urban legend.
Years ago, sh--heads would tell you these stories and there'd be no way to check them... except occasionally the person would hopefully get beat up by somebody bigger who was sick of their constant story-telling.
Sean Penn uses a pencil.
Bought mine on Ebay - Love it!
"... Space Pen, which NASA called the “Data Recording Pen" "
As opposed to the less-expensive "Doodle Recording Pen"?
Hey, Jerry had one of those. But he gave it to Jack Klompus
I had one a long time ago, and hated it. The ink was so sticky and stringy that, for example, when you wrote a word and lifted the pen, there was always a little tendril of ink between the paper and pen (like a spider web). Those tendrils were always getting all over the place. It also took forever to dry. The combination of the wandering ink and the long drying time made for some really messy writing. My writing hand was always getting ink all over it, etc. It was a really lousy pen. Maybe they've improved the quality of the ink since then, but at the time it was a piece of junk.
Isn't that also where they found the Rose Law Firm billing records and who hired Craig Livingstone?
A big, goopy ditto.
They are not like that now. The ballpoint is reliable, never stains my hand, smooth, sleek, writes in any position, etc. etc. Bought mine at a stationary store in NYC. The push type one is $7, the two piece fancier one is about $30.
Oops, here is where to buy this space pen.
http://www.pen-planet-bmsh.com/product.asp?itemid=186
I didn't know he could write. I suppose he could scribble and make Xs.
That's because the Russians couldn't figure out how to make a crayon, a ball point pen or a marks-a-lot.
I'm waiting for a movie with American and Russian astronauts to work the urban legnd into a script. I can just imagine:
Ivan: "Is pen, comrade? And works in zero-G?"
Jack: "Yeah! Our engineers designed this some time ago. Works under water and in vacuum, too. Cost the Agency some money, but it works. Watcha got there?"
Ivan: "Oh, this? Is pencil. Does same."
No wonder Klompus wanted it back. They cost a billion dollars!
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