Except this wasn’t a cost plus contract, this was NASA buying a thing at discount on the open market. In fact, the USSR paid the same discounted bulk price per pen that NASA did.
Comment on Pens in Space
koper@feddit.nl 4 days agoNASA still foots the bill either way. In this arrangement, the cost of development is simply included in the price of the product plus a fixed profit margin. Such ‘cost-plus’ contracts are [criticized] (arstechnica.com/…/nasa-chief-says-cost-plus-contr…) because it eliminates competing for efficiency and incentivises contractors to make their solutions as complicated and expensive as possible.
_stranger_@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Black616Angel@discuss.tchncs.de 4 days ago
To add onto the other comment:
NASA wouldn’t have to pay anything if the research didn’t work out and maybe even avoided other companies who then weren’t compensated for their efforts.
jqubed@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Your points about a cost-plus contract have merit but aren’t applicable here because the pens weren’t developed under a contract at all. Paul Fisher of the Fisher Pen Company had started developing a pressurized pen before the space program even began (to develop a pen that could write in other orientations than on a desk), although learning of the concerns from the program gave him renewed impetus to solve the design. Fisher patented the design in 1966 after ten years of development and about $1 million in cost. Prior to the pens NASA had been purchasing special pencils at $128.89/each. The original purchase order for the pens bought 400 at $2.95/each.
Original Space Pen Purchase Order from NASA
The Soviet space program bought the pens in 1969, and besides the Americans they’re still used today by the Russian and Chinese space programs. You can buy one yourself for as little as $7 if you don’t care about it being refillable. On the one hand that’s a lot for a disposable pen, on the other hand that’s not terribly expensive for a pen that writes upside-down if you need that, and might not feel too bad if you’re prone to losing pens.
blackbrook@mander.xyz 4 days ago
Can we still buy one of the special space pencils? Were they low-dust or something?
jaybone@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
Yeah, what’s the story with these pencils?
Also don’t felt tip pens write upside down?
sqw@lemmy.sdf.org 4 days ago
they will for a bit
jqubed@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I don’t know if anyone still makes the pencils. IIRC they used a special formulation for the graphite that reduced the dust and risk of breakage, but I don’t think there’s much market for that outside the space program since that’s about the only place the dust would float and be hazardous. The pens were in development even before the space program because there’s a market for pens that can write in unusual orientations. I’m sure the marketing of it being a pen used in space helps expands that market some, but the market would exist regardless. It’s supposed to be a nice pen to write with also, although I don’t know how much of that is kind of a placebo to justify spending $10-20+ on a pen. I’m sure it’s nicer than a 50¢ pen, though.
Felt pens can be prone to leakage, especially in lower atmospheric pressure. This can be a problem even in airliners, and definitely not what you want in space. There’s nothing in the pen mechanism to seal the ink in when not in use. A properly made ballpoint pen actually seals the ink in when not in use. That was Bíró’s big selling point over earlier technologies like fountain pens; the pen still writes even if you leave it uncapped and the ink doesn’t dry out. The Bic pen was revolutionary for creating a manufacturing process that could produce them cheaply.
phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Pens are dust-free as is, the problem with a regular ballpoint or felt tip pen is that both inking mechanisms rely on gravity. When you’re in 0g the ballpoint won’t work at all and the felt will stop working after a point when there’s no gravity to pull more ink to the tip.
You could probably spin a felt until it rewets but you’d be liable to make a mess as well.
blackbrook@mander.xyz 4 days ago
Don’t felt tip pens work by capillary action?
JackbyDev@programming.dev 4 days ago
You’re just raising the question about why the pencils cost over $100 if all pencils are dust free. What was so special about them when the special pens were so cheap?
SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
This is the type of calligraphic geekout I came here to see
pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 days ago
so, there are refillable one’s too. okay.
jqubed@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Fisher’s claim to fame before inventing the Space Pen was inventing a universal replacement ink cartridge. You can even put the space pen cartridge in pens from other manufacturers.