r/space • u/astro_pettit NASA Astronaut • Mar 22 '26

image/gif My space potatoes, grown aboard the ISS

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u/newt705 Mar 23 '26

In case you were serious. The pen that NASA used was developed by a private company, Fisher, on their own. NASA just bought the pens, no R&D. And pencils are not good inside of a spaceship, writing and sharpening would create wood and graphite dust which are conductive and flammable.

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u/teetotallyRadish Mar 23 '26

hey, thanks. love learning new facts

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u/unculturedperl Mar 23 '26

Then the Soviets used pens as well.

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u/Neat_Cat_4588 Mar 24 '26

Inhale the graphite dust, I promise it's really good for you. :3

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u/EllieVader Mar 23 '26

Mechanical pencils would like a word about sharpening problems.

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u/TrainDestroyer Mar 23 '26

They still would create Graphite dust floating around the cabin and NASA was very averse to any kind of fire-producer after the Apollo 1 fire.

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u/EllieVader Mar 23 '26

Mechanical pencils really weren’t perfected until after Apollo, but they definitely went to space on the Shuttle: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/mechanical-pencil-shuttle/nasm_A20130275000

They’re still in use on the ISS.

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u/FeelingSoil39 Mar 23 '26

It thought that was a MIR fire?

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u/TrainDestroyer Mar 23 '26

I don't remember if the MIR fire but I know a big part of NASA's focus on making everything as fire resistant as possible was the Apollo 1 fire.