(no subject)
Jan. 9th, 2005 06:34 pmMy friend Rachel is over. She just shared a historical tidbit with me.
On one of the first flights into space, American astronauts discovered that their pens wouldn't work without gravity. They proceeded to spends millions of dollars of NASA money developing a pen which would work with or without gravity.
The Russians used a pencil.
On one of the first flights into space, American astronauts discovered that their pens wouldn't work without gravity. They proceeded to spends millions of dollars of NASA money developing a pen which would work with or without gravity.
The Russians used a pencil.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-10 12:55 am (UTC)Why, yes, that is my entire comment.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-10 03:22 am (UTC)http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
Gnu, killjoy-scientist-at-large
no subject
Date: 2005-01-10 09:02 am (UTC)Although I *still* kinda like the idea of the Russian astronauts laughing in the face of flying pencil leads and going on about their work, and eventually taking advantage of the American ingenuity while still enjoying their Communist principles ...
no subject
Date: 2005-01-10 09:22 pm (UTC)Although, geek as I am, I still enjoyed the motivation for the space pen even more: the regular pencils burst into flames in the 100% oxygen atmosphere... imagine how suprised those poor austronouts must have been.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-10 06:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-10 06:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-10 09:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-10 08:59 am (UTC)Thanks for wasting untold minutes listening to me ramble tonight.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-10 09:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-10 06:39 pm (UTC)