Nasa

[Tractorat]

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly

discovered that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity.



To combat this problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and

$12 billion developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside

down, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures

ranging from below freezing to over 300 C.



The Russians used a pencil.

 

[MarkEkberg]

Which is why we are now using them to get us to and from the space station.

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

The company that made those pens donated some to the Science Bowl that my wife coordinated for DOE. The pens didn't work so well, tended to skip etc. I am glad to know that they were cheap, lol.

 

[B.G. Smith]

Our government should go into the Pile driving business. They are experts in driving things into the ground. bg

 

[Sticks]

Our government should go into the Pile driving business. They are experts in driving things into the ground. bg

That's what happens when you try to work with both the metric and SAE system at the same time. Your designated landing point is 2 miles below the actual surface.

For what ever reason, US technology has a tendency to be over developed and have extremely tight tolerances that have a difficult time working in any environment other than a sterile temperature controlled lab ~ Ergo the side note "Looked good on paper". Our engineers should be required to operate and maintain whatever they design for at least 6 months in the environment they will be used in before they are released for distribution.

 

[p-Bar]

That's what happens when you try to work with both the metric and SAE system at the same time. Your designated landing point is 2 miles below the actual surface.

For what ever reason, US technology has a tendency to be over developed and have extremely tight tolerances that have a difficult time working in any environment other than a sterile temperature controlled lab ~ Ergo the side note "Looked good on paper". Our engineers should be required to operate and maintain whatever they design for at least 6 months in the environment they will be used in before they are released for distribution.

Tolerances: that's why the AR-15 had such problems in Nam . AK drop it in mud still fired. another note Soviets still use tubes in their electronics why? not subject to high radiation and also they always had a hard time developing IC's. Love the pencil though will have to remember that one. It really goes the for High definition t. v's Europe had these long before we did their format worked great did we follow their's of course not we had a better idea . Oh ya same for socialized medicine we could have looked over all the programs in the world picked the best done a few mods probably known too what it was going to cost BUT... .....