There was a fear that the point or other pieces of the pencil would float around, potentially getting in someone's eyes or worse, behind an instrument panel. That's why the pen is used instead.

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"Too low they build, who build beneath the stars". - Edward Young, 1745

They spent the money on making it so that NASA would use it and they would get publicity. Think of it as advertising money and it may make it easier to understand.

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Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Here's a nice little article on the truth. Seriously people, don't base your knowledge on e-mail forwards (i'm sure that's where we've all first learned of the "evils" of the space pen). In all honesty, doing a little research on your own is a good thing. :wink:

[edit]I realize this sounds like I'm directly attacking you, electromagneticpulse, i'm not, obviously you did a bit of research, but the article does explain the reasons why we use the pen. this is more as a general reference for anyone who has read that e-mail, or heard about it.

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01110100011100100110100101101110

"First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?" -- Hadden, Contact

I can bend minds with my spoon.

You do not even have to go to snoopes, or elsewhere to find the truth, you can look on some of the threads here. Give me a few moments to find the thread.


Found it:

One topic

http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/vi...=300154#300154

Another

http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/vi...=158984#158984

The pen was not used until 1968--Until then they used pencils.


As for the reference about American's being stuipid--it sounds like that you are makeing a general reference about Americans which is not fair. I do not know where you are from, but we could just as easily say something general about people from your country based on something humerous said on a program.

I too have seen many of those programs where they show us how "dumb" some people are, they do it because it is much funnier for the audience to see several people mess up something simple, than it is to see the same number of people all get the answers right.

Yes, there are many ignorant people, many ill informed people, many un- educated people, and even many stupid people out there, but for each of these people there are many more well informed people.

If you were to ask me questions about North European geography I would fail miserable (despite living there until I was 14), does that make me stupid--no, I am un-informed or uneducated on the subject. I can however pull out my atlas and look up that information which makes me educated.

Finally I have to put in a defense of the real Humphrey--he would not disguise himself as a troll. If he wanted to print something humerous, he would just put in several smilies to show his humor.

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Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.

--Niels Bohr, Danish Physicist.

One of my loayal comrades told me about this...this...well words fail me. The fact that someone could take the name of their emperor and misuse it to such a degree disgraces me. I shal send the great fruit cannons against him/her. They shal be pummeled with grapes and bannanas untill thier windows are covered in mouds of the stuff and they get sick of fruit salad.

Fear my Fruityness!

Long live the Turtle!

Oh and The rebellion is evil. Don't follow them. They like cabbage, spinache, and brussel sprouts!!!!


P.S. The poster is not me in any way. Those of you who know me know that i would not say this without some sort of tell all that its a joke (like lots of smilies or words saying its a joke).

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"It takes Thousands to fight a battle for a mile, Millions to hold an election for a nation, but it only takes One to change the world."
G'Topia

Humphrey,

Did you know someone built a moment to you in Andover, MA? Chech it out here. Guess Massachusetts will be part of your empire, eh?

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A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

I am not your loyal comrade.

I do not...I mean they do not. Well red cabbage is OK.

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Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.

--Niels Bohr, Danish Physicist.

I hear the Norwegian coastline is lovely. Someone even won an award for it. Slarty Bart-something-or-other. :wink: :wink:

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Why does "monosyllabic" have 5 syllables?

Yeah, but his Bistro Stank.

Everytime I waved around a Bread Stick, we wound up inside a Super Nova, Good Thing we weren't a Whelk, huh?

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If you Ignore YOUR Rights, they Will go away.

I'm gunna put it in here for the fun of it. We've had the Van Halen Belts, the Van Helsing Belts, and the Kupier Belt. Well now, how about this.

"the protective Van Allen radiation shield" As seen on GLP (all normal brain rotting warnings apply.)

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

i heard some mice weren't too impressed with the ones he was making on africa.

And NASAfan i often dont state who im saying the bad things about and by dumb people i dont mean the willing to learn, i can't play guitar but im learning it. dumb people i mean are the people who are unwilling to learn, if someone says something i dont understand, unless its in french then i will try to understand it and if it is in french i reserve my british right to say "why should i learn french, everyone speaks english anyway" :P

And i tend to miss the point of defining who im insulting with americans because when ever i talk to one i'm asked if i live in london, and when i say no i live in hull i get the question, "is that near london?" so after a couple of years you just lose the will to be polite and end up sayin "yes its in london infact its the little part with the 300,000 people living in just next to the big red telephone box".

Were also not snobby but we often do have our houses destroyed to make a bypass, about 5 minutes before the planet is destroyed to make a bypass. :P

Well, emp, keep in mind that to some Americans, especially those from the "wide open spaces" out West, all of the British Isles would qualify as "near London".

I got a taste of this myself on a visit to your fair land. We flew into London, then headed north for a business meeting in a town near the Scottish border. I think it took all of three or four hours of driving (I could be off by a bit here, it was quite a while ago). In short, we crossed most of England in less time than it would take to get from Houston to El Paso, Texas, USA.

I love reading these threads when you lot are in a feeding frenzy .

Anyway I have a Fisher space pen (courtesy of a very nice patient) and it comes with a pamphlet explaining that it was developed by Fisher AT NO COST to NASA. The first time I heard the story of NASA spending millions to develop a pen and the Soviets using a pencil I knew right away I was listening to a load of you know what.

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Pull ye other one, it doth have bell`s on!

A friend and I worked through college at gas stations located on an interstate. This lead to some interesting conversations with travelers. One always comes to mind when something like this pops up. A British family had flown into the Atlanta, GA airport and was apparently on vacation and wanted to 'tour America.' They arrived in our town about 3 hours later and stopped to fuel up. They asked my friend just how much further was it to their destination as they had been ‘traveling all day’ and wanted to get there in time to see a few sights before the sun set. He about fell over when they told him where they were going. Seems they were on their way to the Grand Canyon. They had gone 180 miles of a 1,700 mile one-way trip. They weren’t too happy to hear that. They said something to the effect that our ‘country was too dang big.’

Meh, more room to stretch my legs.

...You know, previewing this it reads like an UL, but honest, the conversation happened. But based on what you said about taking 3-4 hours to cross a majority of England, I can see how some people can know how big the US is without it truly sinking in. My work requires me to travel occasionally from the corporate office to a not that remote site. Yet when I take that distance and look at England, I'm amazed how much falls inside the circle.

Yeah englands small, and you wasnt far off with 3 hours depending on what you was driving on and how many people had decided to crash it would have been 3 or 4 hours, i'd surgest train, when u actualy get on one they get u places in no time its just you have to wait a couple of months for them to arrive cause their always so damn late. anyway yeah englands too small, and the people are annoying, and where i live they dont speak properly oh and they defffinetly havent heard of condoms.
anyway enough of me being anti-english and pro english.
we make better fish and chips then you ever could

This got the dimensions all wrong! Its supposed to be bronze and gold!

A fellow soccer fan of mine is English (and a post-doc studying here at Goddard). We got on a bus to go to the season-opener away game for the women's professional team we supported, going to the site of our second-closest rival (in North Carolina). He just about fell over when he heard that it was a five-hour bus trip. You could probably get from any English Premier League stadium to any other one in that amount of time.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

It's a good job I'm from the West Riding of Yorkshire and not the Hull area. :wink: Over here we have a proper accent. And hills.

Britain is small, but densely populated! The nearest you get to real wilderness is the beatiful Scottish highlands. Oh, and central Newcastle on a Friday night.

Americans make the best Pizza though.

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"We need rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!"