Space Pen ( Russian space pan - “space pen”, also known as Zero Gravity Pen - “weightless pen”) - a ballpoint pen created and sold by Fisher Spacepen Co., in which the ink is in a special cartridge under pressure . According to the creators, he can write in zero gravity , under water, on wet and greasy paper , at any angle, at extreme temperatures. Therefore, it is widely used in space programs in Russia and the USA, as well as by American rangers and travelers, when you need to write away from civilization.
Fisher's space pen was invented by Paul C. Fisher, an American inventor and entrepreneur. It was produced in Boulder City , Nevada , USA. At the same time, pens from other manufacturers, similar in parameters and characteristics, appeared.
Content
Technology
The writing ball is made of tungsten carbide and is very precisely installed to avoid leakage. Inks are thixotropic - solid in the normal state and liquefy when writing; squeezed out with compressed nitrogen at a pressure of about 2.4 atm. A sliding float separates the ink from the compressed gas. It is claimed that with a pen you can write three times more than a regular ballpoint pen (but this is conditional). She can also write at heights of up to 3810 m. The operating temperature range is from −35 to 120 ° C. Service life is 100 years.
Uses in US and Russian space programs
An ordinary ballpoint pen needs gravity. This is easy to check - on the wall the pen writes very poorly. There is an urban legend : NASA spent $ 1 million to develop a pen capable of writing in zero gravity; Russians used a simple pencil [1] . In fact, until 1967, American astronauts used felt-tip pens or mechanical pencils for writing (the writing unit was taken from an ordinary pencil, and a light and durable metal case was made to order; taking into account small-scale production, it turned out about $ 100 apiece). Soviet cosmonauts used wax pencils [2] , since graphite pencils were sources of small fragments and conductive dust.
NASA did not allocate any funds to Fisher and did not subsidize the manufacture of a special writing instrument. He invented it himself, and then suggested that NASA try it out. After that, the AG7 Space Pen was accepted by American and Soviet (subsequently Russian) space agencies for further use. The average cost of one pen for the Apollo project was $ 6.