Comments on: Chrome Plated Bullet Space Pen

By: Dionysus

Dionysus — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:35:34 +0000

There are numerous reasons pencils are a bad thing to be using in a spacestation.
-They’re much more flammable.
-They constantly need to be sharpened.
-Pieces of lead can break off, posing(yes, this sounds silly) a threat to machinery.
Among other things.

By: Hevach

Hevach — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:24:29 +0000

To continue what Andrew Ward posted: The Russians also used this pen after it was introduced.

The original set was given to NASA for free, and NASA said not that long ago that in the intervening years, they haven’t spent close to $2,000,000 buying the pens, let alone developing them.

By: Andrew Ward

Andrew Ward — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:48:39 +0000

Its a cool pen: but the 2 million cost to NASA is an urban myth. Fisher Pen developed the concept and gave it to NASA (and the world). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_Space_Pen

By: cdog

cdog — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 11:21:15 +0000

You know pencils write in any position, don’t dry out, don’t cost 2 million US$ to develop.

By: cdog

cdog — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 11:19:01 +0000

Apparently the Russians thought a pencil worked ok.

By: Steve McEnglish

Steve McEnglish — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:33:26 +0000

Are fricken-
ITS CALLED A PENCIL.

By: Bill

Bill — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:41:48 +0000

Use a pencil.

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:31:01 +0000

While this pen is a pretty amazing piece of engineering…why didn’t we do the same thing the russians did and just use pencils?

By: dechrigi

dechrigi — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:29:03 +0000

clever – but why not use a pencil instead?

By: Jean-Luc Picard

Jean-Luc Picard — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:25:55 +0000

The Russians saved millions then – they took pencils!