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Notes on a map written with a felt-tip pen by Michael Collins onboard command module Columbia
Several instruments have been used to write in outer space, including different types of pencils and pens. Some of them have been unmodified versions of conventional writing instruments; others have been invented specifically to counter the problems with writing in space conditions.
A common misconception states that, faced with the fact that ball-point pens would not write in zero-gravity, the Fisher Space Pen was devised as the result of millions of dollars of unnecessary spending on NASA's part when the Soviet Union took the simpler and cheaper route of just using pencils, making the pen an example of overengineering.[1]
In reality, the space pen was independently developed by Paul C. Fisher, founder of the Fisher Pen Company, with $1 million of his own funds.[2][3][4] NASA tested and approved the pen for space use, especially since they were less flammable than pencils,[1] then purchased 400 pens at $6 per pen.[5] The Soviet Union subsequently also purchased the space pen for its Soyuz spaceflights.
When practically all writing in space intended for permanent record (e.g., logs, details and results of scientific experiments) is electronic, the discussion of writing instruments in space is somewhat academic: hard copy is produced infrequently, as of 2019. The laptops used (as of 2012, IBM/Lenovo ThinkPads) need customization for space use, such as radiation-, heat- and fire-resistance.[6]
^ abCurtin, Ciara (20 December 2006). "Fact or Fiction?: NASA Spent Millions to Develop a Pen that Would Write in Space, whereas the Soviet Cosmonauts Used a Pencil". Scientific American. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
^"Fisher Space Pen – Our story" Retrieved on February 4, 2019
^"The Fisher Space Pen". Steve Garber, NASA History Web Curator. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
^"Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov testing out his first Fisher Space Pen back in 1968". Retrieved October 4, 2013.
^"NASA – The Fisher Space Pen" Retrieved on February 4, 2019
^"What kind of laptops do ISS astronauts use?". Space Exploration Stack Exchange. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
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