Hi Tech

[Artie]

When NASA first started sending astronauts into space they quickly discovered that ball-point pens do not work in zero gravity. To combat this problem scientists spent a decade and twelve billion dollars to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300C.




The Russians used a pencil.

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[rickp]

A nice story - but its an Urban Legend. NASA did not fund the development of the pen, and the pencil has a number of associated hazards (you really do not want conductive bits of graphite floating around in zero g).

The <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp>snopes</A> article is a good summary of this.

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