Duct tape saved the day during Apollo 13 too, when they were having CO2 problems. Those guys jury-rigged the Lithium Hydroxide canister of the command-module (which were square), into the LEM(which had round canisters). Saved the day. Without it, the astronauts would have died of CO2 poisoning. Apparently, the design was so good, it became a standard emergency procedure in future missions.
Why not just make all lithium hydroxide canisters the same shape? Bah.. inventing zero-g pens when you can use a pencil and all.. always having to make everything so complicated!
I had a Fisher Space Pen and loved it, until it turned out to be falsely advertised. It claims to write at any temperature, but it would not write at all when it was a scant -20F (-28C) out. I was very disappointed.
I thought pencils could generate graphite dust, and splinters of broken graphite when points broke, and creating shavings which have to be stored when sharpened. Of course, I think the Russian space program found these troubles acceptable.
Didn't know it was just a rumour, thanks for pointing it out (as several others have done too). My main point is still valid though - things should be kept as simple as possible, where possible. Especially for life and death stuff like this. The pen thing only came into my head as I was already writing my post.
Cut the crap about the Zero-G pen. Pencils in space are a bad idea. Wood burns, graphite dust is electrically conductive and ends up in circuits where it shouldn't, etc. The Fisher space pen was developed on Fisher's dime, not the taxpayers. The Soviets ended up using them too.
Played a bigger role in Apollo 13 (Score:2, Informative)
Saved the day. Without it, the astronauts would have died of CO2 poisoning. Apparently, the design was so good, it became a standard emergency procedure in future missions.
Re:Played a bigger role in Apollo 13 (Score:2)
Don't let facts get in the way (Score:0)
Bah.. inventing zero-g pens when you can use a pencil and all.. always having to make everything so complicated!
That is actually a myth [snopes.com]
The "space pen" was developed entirely by a private company in hopes that they could make millions selling it to suckers who would think it was cool.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:0)
Please stop perpetuating rumors.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:0)
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp