tube technology and EMP

[Alexander Schreiber]

On Thu, Apr 21, 2005 at 06:07:47PM -0500, Kapteyn, Rob wrote:
> > Randy McLaughlin <cctalk at randy482.com> wrote:
> >
> > I don't remember all the details but I read that while NASA always tried to 
> > solve problems with $ and technology.
> >
> > The Russians used something better:  thought.  The biggest problems were 
> > heat and pressure.  Solid state devices shut down when heated.  The 
> > spacecraft was open on the flight to Venus and sealed up before landing. 
> > This kept the insides under vacuum which slowed down heat transference.
> > 
> > Smart, very smart.
> 
> Reminds me of joke I was told when I visited my relatives in Canada:
> 
> "One of the first big problems of manned space flight was that ball-point pens
> would not work reliably in zero gravity.
> NASA started a huge research project and after more than a year the 'space pen'
> was developed.
> This was a ball point pen that could write upside down and in zero gravity.
> 
> (BTW: These pens were sold to the public and widely advertised when I was a kid)
> 
> The russian cosmonauts, on the other hand, simply used a pencil :-)

Nice story, but at the bit about how " NASA started a huge research
project" is wrong. The "Fisher Space Pen" was not developed by NASA, but
by a company making pens (Fisher) and they not only developed it on their
own dime, but also sold them to NASA at a few dollars per pen.

And for using pencils in space: Having loose bits of nicely conductive
graphite dust floating around the interiour of your space vehicle is a 
seriously bad idea since this is just asking for random shorts in your
onboard electronics.

Regards,
       Alex.
-- 
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
 looks like work."                                      -- Thomas A. Edison