Useless informatiom !!
Submitted: Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 10:36
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Troop-a-dour
During the initial space flights, Nasa discovered that biro pens didn’t work under zero gravity conditions.
To beat the problem, Nasa spent 6 years and $2 million in designing a pen for use in space. The pen would work under zero gravity conditions due to the pressurized ink inside, it would work under sub zero conditions, underwater, on glass and virtually any surface known to man.
The RUSSIANS used a PENCIL.
Reply By: HJ60-2H - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 10:38
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 10:38
And they are sold as the Fischer Space pen. Great pen, have been using them for years.
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Follow Up By: Brian B (QLD) - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 11:25
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 11:25
Hi,
More to that is the fact that NASA hold a number of patents on things they have developed and in fact have gone on to make a whole lot more money than was used at the developmental stage.
A lot of the things we use today originated from space research etc.
Just a bit of trivia.
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Follow Up By: Member - Omaroo (NSW) - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 11:26
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 11:26
Yep - I collect them. Great pens. I must admit I haven't tried any of
mine in zero-gravity yet though.
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Follow Up By: Member - Bware (Tweed Valley) - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 11:44
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 11:44
LOL Omaroo atleast they CAN write in zero G just in case you need to.
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Follow Up By: Pajman Pete (SA) - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 12:08
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 12:08
I have one too. Great for dirty or sweaty notebooks when I am out on site. I must try it on glass now .... yep, sure does!
Cheers
Pete
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Follow Up By: Member - Bill F (VIC) - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 16:19
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 16:19
Pete
Could you wipe it off your computer screen?
Bill
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Follow Up By: Pajman Pete (SA) - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 16:46
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 16:46
No, but the white out worked a treat!
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Follow Up By: Member - Andrew (QLD) - Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 07:43
Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 07:43
Uniball have been using this technology/concept for
well over a year now on their "powertank" series pens. They describe them as: "A pressurised ink delivery system enables the PowerTank pens to continue writing upside down, in extreme cold (up to minus 20 degrees), on shiny surfaces, wet paper and even underwater." For only $3.95 each, they are just brilliant......there the only style of pens i buy now. I find them especially great for wet/damp paper. They are harder to get though as not all stationery stores stock them!
info on these pens at www.uniball.com.au/sg200.html and www.uniball.com.au/sn227.html
Andrew
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Follow Up By: Laura B - Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 11:12
Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 11:12
pete - your not a blonde are you??!!LOL!!!!! - you have heard that joke havent you? the one where the blonde uses whiteout on the screen.....
Laura
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Follow Up By: Member - Jeff M (WA) - Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 11:59
Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 11:59
"Yep - I collect them. Great pens. I must admit I haven't tried any of
mine in zero-gravity yet though."
Ok, what you need to do is drag out the kids trampoline and
jump up and down as high as you can. Write on the downward motion of the jump on a notebook. (this is probally best attempted after 4-6 beers). Then when the missus walks out and asks you "what the hell are you doing?!" you can excalaim that you are testing your pen collection by writing in zero gravity. :-)
Me?
Nah, I'd go write threw the bloody trapoline and land on my ass! (my feet almost touch the ground when I just stand on it! LOL!
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Follow Up By: Member - Omaroo (NSW) - Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 12:10
Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 12:10
Trampoline? Eeek! I'd kill myself and everyone else within a 50 metre radius.....
Nah... what I want is a trip inside the "Vomit Comet", NASA's KC-135A. This is the only way to prove the concept within terrestrial space.
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Follow Up By: Member - Andrew (QLD) - Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 12:24
Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 12:24
What happens when someone "throws up" !!!
Andrew
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Reply By: GoneTroppo Member (FNQ) - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 10:39
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 10:39
From what I heard there was a lot more to the "pencil"
A normal pencil would create dust etc which woud be a breathing
hazard.
This may
well come under the heading of urban myths
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Follow Up By: hoyks - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 12:36
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 12:36
Not just a breathing
hazard, not good to get a snapped off piece of pencil in your eye while performing a delicate manoeuvre. There is also the problem of conductive graphite dust. Not good to contaminate a vital piece of electronic equipment so that it malfunctions when you are in a metal tin that far from home.
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Reply By: Frank_Troopy - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 10:53
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 10:53
The Russians probably all used the same pencil.
I have an Eversharp Astronaut. It's fantastic. It really does write on glass. I reckon it would write on surfaces unknown to man.
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Reply By: Member - Bware (Tweed Valley) - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 11:52
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 11:52
God bless America; the country that came up with the idea of doing decade-long studies that cost billions of dollars to find out things. Generally common sense things like 'kids that exercise more than others are healthier', or other such mind-blowing revelations....
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Reply By: The Explorer - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 12:58
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 12:58
So was it a Nissan 3 litre engine they used in Challenger?
Cheers
Greg
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Follow Up By: Troop-a-dour - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 13:03
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 13:03
Nah- but just remember, the Russian Space Station was out of the same country that bought us the Lada Niva..Now is that a good recommendation or what !!!
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Follow Up By: Shaker - Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 23:50
Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 23:50
Shame, because Lada Niva was almost a good little 4 x 4.
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Reply By: Mr Fawlty - Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 16:34
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006 at 16:34
Well that's all fine & DANDY but what about pure waste of public money? Hows this: The CSIRO have been given $10 million, of taxpayers money, to research an antivenine for male platypus "stings"...Weird isn't it, not one recorded attack by a platypus in the wild on a human being since way back in the dream time....At least the pen was a technological solution to a real problem....
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Reply By: GaryInOz (Vic) - Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 12:30
Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 12:30
NASA research has given us gems such as Light Emitting Diodes.......
But yeah, the difference in ideologies in the initial post on this thread is fascinating.
My old man tells a very funny story of a similar sort of difference in attitudes between the British and the Americans defence departments duruing the 50's and 60's. Apparently there was a bit of a compeition to see who could miniaturise various tools, and the Yanks trumpeted their technological prowess by sending the "worlds" smallest drill bit to various countries for their inspection (including Aus and UK).
The British played along beautifully, being truely "amazed" at the technology and dutifully sent the drill bit back to the Americans. On recieving the drill bit back the Americans tried to use it and fount that it would not drill through anything. Intrigued by this and not wishing to make a international "scene" they carefully placed the drill bit under a microscope only to see
the tip of it appearing as if it was broken.
On further inspection the Americans discovered that their drill bit now had a hole drilled right down the length of it.................
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Follow Up By: GoneTroppo Member (FNQ) - Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 12:38
Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 12:38
Gee I'd like to see the drill they used, bet it was one of those great new GMC ones.
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Follow Up By: gottabjoaken - Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 13:51
Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 13:51
Similar to the "story" about the Americans being forced to submit a tender for the production of transistors which, at the time had a very high failure rate on testing.
The specification was sent to a Japanese company who were to attempt to produce a sample batch and included a clause (so tough that they wouldn't be able to meet it, as far as the American manufacturers were concerned) that the maximum failure rate per 100 was to be 10%.
The japanese company dispatched the sample batch of transistors with a note that the failure rate was rather difficult to achieve, but after a thousand batches they had collected sufficient faulty ones and for the tester's convenience they were packaged separately.
oops reads like a friday...
Ken
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Follow Up By: GaryInOz (Vic) - Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 15:53
Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 at 15:53
It actually happened. My old man's department was one of the Aussies that was sent the drill (RAAF Engineer)
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