Writing in Space with a Cheap Ballpoint Pen

Roland Piquepaille writes "Some days bring big surprises. Like many people, I always believed that it was impossible to write in space with ordinary pens because ink would not flow. So imagine my astonishment when I read Pedro Duque's diary from space this morning. Pedro Duque is an astronaut since 1992. Now, he's on board of the International Space Station (ISS) since October 18, 2003. And he's writing -- from space -- with a cheap ballpoint pen, like Russians apparently always did: 'So I also took one of our ballpoint pens, courtesy of the European Space Agency (just in case Russian ballpoint pens are special), and here I am, it doesn't stop working and it doesn't "spit" or anything.' Isn't it amazing? This summary contains more details and a photograph of Pedro Duque on board ISS." Note that NASA didn't go crazy developing a pen for space. Surface tension is the important factor for all pens, not gravity.

Comments

Oh no, another childhood belief has been smashed!

[Phoenix-kun]

What's next? That astronauts didn't actually drink Tang in space? All those glasses of orange drink just so I could be like them gone to waste?

gravity doesn't matter?

[lethalwp]

if gravity doesn't matter, explain me why you can't use a sheet of paper and a ballpoint pen on a wall for more than 5 minutes ?

Re:gravity doesn't matter?

[BogWart]

I think lack of gravity matters. In your upside down pen, gravity will pull the ink away from the ball.

Re:gravity doesn't matter?

[angusr]

(That'll teach me to check that I'm actually logged in before posting...)

Because gravity is still in action on the ink when the pen is horizontal, at a guess. Writing with the pen held horizontally isn't the same as writing in microgravity - in microgravity the stickiness of the ink is more than capable of pulling more ink towards the ball as it writes, whereas with the pen held horizontally in normal G it still has to pull ink "uphill" against gravity towards the top of the ball.

It'a another example of how nearly impossible it is to extrapolate what happens in space or on the Moon from our experiences on Earth - for more examples, check out Bad Astronomy on the Apollo "Hoax"

Movie quote

[ArbiterOne]

"We spent millions of dollars developing the Space Pen program. Know what the Russians did? They used a pencil."

Be fair

[0123456]

He's writing in a space station that's pressurized and kept at around 20C. The 'space pen' was designed to work in a vacuum in a temperature range of something like -100C to +200C, as experienced on the lunar surface: try doing that with a $0.50 plastic ballpoint.

Re:Be fair

[Dun Malg]

Oh well then you write with a pen inside the shuttle and when you have landed on the moon write with a pencil. Its not as if a broken pencil lead...

Pencils in spacecraft are a safety hazard for the very reason you state above. Not the lunar goats, but the broken lead. Graphite is conductive. Little bits of conductive material floating about in zero-G in a spacecraft full of electronic doodads is a catastrophic short circuit waiting to happen. Yeah, they shield the critical circuits, and yeah, it'd be better if every square centimeter of a spacecraft was checked for "graphite vulnerability", but the best solution is still to have a "no pencils" rule. Solves the problem nicely.

Why wouldn't capillary action work in space?

[stankulp]

It's not gravity that pulls the ink through the tube.

It's the surface tension propteries of the ink, commonly known as capillary action.

Re:One Word

[tiled_rainbows]

Have you ever had trouble writing upside down with a ballpoint anyways?

yes, I have. Or, as another poster said, on a vertical surface. Also, if I put a ballpoint pen upside-down in my trouser pocket, all the ink dribbles out and gives me a blue stain on my thigh.

Generally, I don't notice this until I'm in the shower the next morning, and mistake it for a big nasty bruise, especially if I've been out drinking the night before and can't quite remember if I fell over or not.

I'm still waiting for NASA to solve this problem.

No gravity to work *against* surface tension...

[aquarian]

Surface tension is indeed the important factor, but what you're missing is this: although gravity is not needed for the pen to write, in space it's not working against you when you try to write upside down.

Space exploration in full retreat

[amightywind]

Roland Piquepaille writes "Some days bring big surprises. Like many people, I always believed that it was impossible to write in space with ordinary pens because ink would not flow. So imagine my astonishment when I read Pedro Duque's diary from space this morning...

In the 60's we longed to use space technology to explore other worlds, and did a great job of it. Then we decided to make spaceflight routine and do great science on orbital space stations. They would be used as stepping stones to the Moon and Mars we were told. What we got is an expensive, perpetual, and feckless welfare program for the exploration of triviality. In the 30 years since Apollo we have answered such pressing questions as: How long does it take to get sick in space while spinning on a gyroscope? Can spiders spin webs in zero g? Can ballpoint pens work in space? With the exception of planetary missions, the current space program is a complete waste.

Re:Amazing Technology

[ocelotbob]

Problem with a pencil is the graphite dust. Normal gravity, graphite dust isn't an issue, it gets mostly on the paper, you don't worry about that. Now, in space, that graphite dust lingers, gets into things, makes the environment not as friendly to be in as it could be. With a pen, this is much less of an issue, as the physics of writing are a lot different.

I think this is the explanation.

[Futurepower(R)]

The reason for using pressure in pens, it seems, is that surface tension alone may not be enough to pull a long column of ink through a narrow tube. If there is a little bubble in the column of ink, the surface tension is broken, and there is no way to pull ink past the bubble.

The problem of a bubble in the column of ink happens on land, too, not just in space. People deal with it by just throwing the pen away. Since cheap pens cost less than 15 cents, someone may develop the habit of throwing away pens without noticing what he is doing. If a bubble develops, it is usually after the pen has had considerable use, so there is little complaint.

In situations of varying temperature and outside air pressure, unpressurized pens may develop a bubble more easily. Pressurized ink cartridges are a little more reliable, and cost the manufacturer only a little more.

Re:I think this is the explanation.

[bigman2003]

In the U.S., ballpoint pens cost about 7 cents each.

Typically, I buy a bag or two of them every year or so when they have a big bin at Staples, and throw them into the desk drawer. I usually don't have too much trouble with them, but this discussion has spurred me on to figure out how much time I should spend on trying to get one of these to work.

I figure that it actually takes about 4 seconds of billed time to buy a new pen.

This may be a horrible 'throwaway society' viewpoint, but I don't usually spend too much time dicking with my pen before I pull another one out of the drawer. And of course, I throw the first one away, so I don't run into the same problem with it again.

Usually though, the issue is that I lose all my pens- not that they don't work. Eventually I end up searching through the glovebox in my car, where there is always a vast collection of pens that I have acquired from different places. Obviously there is some sort of subversive pen-exchange system out there, transferring pens around the country.

I used to own a business where I thought it would be a good idea to give out pens to my customers. Not like a fine gift or anything, but just have stacks of them so people could take them when they wanted to. So I ordered like 5,000 of them, and started handing them out right away.

Within the first month I got 3 or 4 calls from people telling me that my pens sucked. I figured that if they bothered to call, then they must have really sucked bad. I started testing them, and yes, they really did suck. So I ended up throwing out about 4,750 pens.

Maybe I should have sent them to India...I can just imagine all of those potential customers blowing on the pens with my company name and logo on them. That would have been fantastic exposure, especially now that a lot of Indians are moving into the area.

"So sir, how is it that you happened to come into (my former company name)"

"I used to blow on your pens as a child, and I always dreamed of coming here one day...and telling you that your pens sucked."

Re:Morons: Try writing upside down

[gnixdep]

Pfft! who's the moron!

If we have the pen upside-down, the nib won't be on the paper!

One word:

[chiph]

Microgravity.

What happens to all the pencil shavings and eraser crumbs?

Chip H.

Re:Oh no, another childhood belief has been smashe

[sharkey]

All those glasses of orange drink just so I could be like them gone to waste?

You really could use this.