On Sat, 11 Sep 2004, ShadowAce wrote:

> http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
> 
> 
> Fisher did ultimately develop a pressurized pen for use by NASA astronauts
> (now known as the famous "Fisher Space Pen"), but both American and Soviet
> space missions initially used pencils, NASA did not seek out Fisher and ask
> them to develop a "space pen," Fisher did not charge NASA for the cost of
> developing the pen, and the Fisher pen was eventually used by both American
> and Soviet astronauts.
>
> (Snip...) 

Thanks Dirk, for pointing this out.  I got my first Fisher Space pen for
x-mas when Apollo was still flying to the moon.  It was the greatest!  I had
that pen for more than 10 years before I lost it.  It was all metal and I
probably went through 2 or 3 refills.  I still buy Space Pens, but they are
now sold by the J.L. Darling company & are called Rite in the Rain pens
because you can use them underwater as well - they sell a line of "Rite in
the Rain" notebooks for work in the field under inclement weather to go along
with the pens, but the pen I have in my hand at the moment also says "SPACE"
on the side of it.  I put 2 of those pens in one of my geocaches figuring
they would last longer, but at $6.95 a crack, I haven't used them everywhere
(and my source only sells refills now, not the actual pen itself).

Many of the items "blamed" on NASA like Tang, velcro, teflon and integrated
circuits were not developed by or for NASA specifically, but instead were
made use of by NASA in their spacecraft.  While they were not developed for
the purpose, they fit the need and were often advanced in capability thanks
to their use in the space program.  A funny example in this area is Tang.  I
don't think NASA actually flew Tang into orbit - at least not all the time
and certainly not during its most famous in flight incident, but Tang was
advertized on some of the NASA related broadcasts, so that may be where the
lore comes from.  Anyway, during the flight of Apollo 16, the crew was given
a juice drink in their spacesuits out on the moon.  It turned out that during
Apollo 15, the crew became potassium deficient during their moon walks while
only drinking water out on the surface and that lead to some irregular heart
beats during EVAs which obviously scared the flight surgeons back on Earth,
hence the change for Apollo 16.  Two problems happened because of this, one
is that Charlie Duke's juice tube leaked like a sieve and got all over the
inside of his helmet and into his hair - a sticky mess.  The other was that
during the flight, NASA overcorrected and they had so much citrus fruit drink
and so on that John Young, the commander of the flight, had a bit of a gas
problem.  At one point between EVAs while the crew was in the Lunar Module on
the moon, Young (thinking he was just talking to his crewmate, Charlie Duke)
commented:

128:50:37 Young: I have the farts, again. I got them again, Charlie. I don't
know what the hell gives them to me. Certainly not...I think it's acid
stomach. I really do.

128:50:44 Duke: It probably is.

128:50:45 Young: (Laughing) I mean, I haven't eaten this much citrus fruit in
20 years! And I'll tell you one thing, in another 12 fucking days, I ain't
never eating any more. And if they offer to sup(plement) me potassium with my
breakfast, I'm going to throw up! (Pause) I like an occasional orange. Really
do. (Laughs) But I'll be durned if I'm going to be buried in oranges.

He actually said this on a hot mike that was transmitted back to Earth for
all to hear....  Tang took the blame for this in part too.

Jim.

Jim Scotti
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA                 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/