It is often rumored that NASA spent millions of dollars developing a pen that would write in the absence of gravity, but that The Russians solved the problem using a simple pencil. However, It's nothing more than an urban legend.
Right now, on the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts use pencils. Still, concerns about its flammability in a pure oxygen atmosphere and the threat of tiny floating pieces of graphite inspired Paul Fisher to develop the Space Pen in 1965, a fairly cheap invention.
Back to pencils
Both American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts initially used pencils on space flights, but those writing instruments were not ideal: pencil tips can chip and break, and have such objects floating around space capsules in near-zero gravity. represents potential harm to astronauts and equipment.
NASA began developing a space pen, but project costs rose, so the project was canceled and the astronauts used pencils like the Russians again. NASA never contacted Paul Fisher to develop a pen, just as he did not receive any funding from the government to develop it.
An AG7 Astronaut Space Pen in its case.
The curious thing about the whole thing is that to write in space you don't need a special pen. Sometimes special pens are used, but also normal ones, as As it explains in Spanish astronaut Pedro Duke:
I'm writing these notes on the Soyuz with a cheap pen. Why is that important? It turns out that I have been working in space programs for seventeen years, eleven as an astronaut, and I have always believed, because it was explained to me, that normal pens do not write in space.
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The news
Despite all the technology available, normal pens are still used in space
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.