On Thu, 30 Oct 2003, David Weinshenker wrote: > > They too use the space pens. Pens are better than pencils for this > > application -- no graphite dust floating around, and no smudging. > > What's wrong with conventional felt-tip pens ("Flair", "Le Pen", etc.?) > for the application? They should be perfectly non-gravity-sensitive and > non-particle-generating...
Depends on the spacecraft. Anything using liquid ink with volatile solvents is completely unworkable for a spacecraft whose interior is sometimes in vacuum, as the pre-shuttle US spacecraft were (and as the Soyuz orbital module still potentially is, although I don't think that capability has been used lately). Even spacecraft that have pressure changes -- e.g. the shuttle, which is always pressurized but whose cabin pressure is sometimes lowered to reduce spacewalk prebreathing times -- would have problems with such pens leaking. For a constant-pressure spacecraft, I would think the only problem would be a bit of solvent released into the air, which ought to be a relatively minor issue. Henry Spencer [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list