During the heat of the space race in the 1960's, the U.S. National Aeronauticsand Space Administration (N.A.S.A.) decided it needed a ball point pen to write in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules. After considerable research and development, the Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of about $1 million U.S. The pen worked and also enjoyed some modest success as a novelty item back here on Earth.
The Soviet Union, faced with the same problem, used a pencil.
The pen developed by NASA was originally marketed as a Flair pen. Probably a third of all pens sold in the U.S. today are based on the technology developed by NASA.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever tried to sharpen a pencil in zero gravity?