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On 2001-10-25 13:53, SporkWarrior wrote:
> The soviet union used pencils. While our government wasted hundreds of
> thousands of dollars developing a pen that works in zero-G, the soviets brought pencils.
Oh please. This is a classic example of distorting facts to make some blurb used in management meetings to emphasize the point of thinking outside the box.
One, the Fisher Space Pen, as it is called was not commissioned by NASA. Paul Fisher, on his own initiative, designed the space pen. Why? He realized that pencils are combustible and if they break, that leaves small particles of graphite floating around in the capsule. Not too good for the eyes or the instrumentation. NASA in no way paid millions of dollars to create this pen.
And if you don't believe me, check out Snopes.com
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Thanks SporkWarrior! But what about my question? WOOD IN SPACE! And NO pencils! Or paper! No writing gear! No coffee filters, no air filters, no paper cups, no discarded cardboard boxes left by error in the shuttle! Wood with a real use!
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Fisher spent over one million dollars in trying to perfect the ball point pen before he made his first successful pressurized pens in 1965. Samples were immediately sent to Dr. Robert Gilruth, Manager of the Houston Space Center, where they were thoroughly tested and approved for use in Space in September 1965. In December 1967 he sold 400 Fisher Space Pens to NASA for $2.95 each.
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The point stands however, because I don't know what that guy Fisher was thinking. Assuming he spent that 1 000 000$ and managed to sell 400 to NASA for 2,95$ each doesn't that leave him minus 998 820$? He might have sold more of those but at 2,95 doesn't that mean he needed to sell about 338 983 pens, now he sold 400, so that leaves 338 583 to just compensate for what he has spent.
Assuming it comes packaged in a 1,5 centimeter by 1,5 centimeter by 25 centimeter box, it means that all those pens would take 19 067 793,75 cm^3 and since 1 km^3 = 1 000 000 cm^3 that would mean roughly 19,1 km^3 of space for all those pens he needed to sell to just compensate. I don't know if NASA has filled all its warehouses with boxes of space pens and since the pen had less than stellar sales on the market, he must have blackmailed a lot of people to force NASA into buying 19,1 cubic kilometers of space pens. And 1 000 000$ is just for his research. He has people that needed to be paid, a production that needed to be paid, so he probably needed to sell a lot more than that to stay in business (and they did). It must be hell moving in NASA offices, submerged in an enormous quantity of space pens.
I suspect that the international space station is a cover up to be able to send shuttles that should be unloaded in space, packing them full of space pens and dumping them where they rightfully belong: in space.
Laughing yet? [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
Now let's just WATCH an idiot barge in here saying something along the lines of "Your numbers are inaccurate, as the space pen box is..." [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]
Let's just stick to wood in space shall we! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Mr. X on 2001-10-25 15:47 ]</font>