A long-standing absurd story (I)-pencil and space pen

For a long time, there has been a story like this:
It is said that American astronauts are very depressed in space, and pen and ballpoint pen cannot write words in weightless conditions. Scientists in the United States spent more than X years (recently, a Chinese expert who gave a speech at the Agricultural University has been coding for $10 billion) and finally developed a pen that can be used in weightless conditions. At the same time, Soviet astronauts have been using pencils in space (in general, at this time, there will be good laughter ).
Of course, there are many variants in this story, similar to viruses, which are repeated in different tastes. For example, this variant: NASA spent a lot of effort on writing in space and was not successful, because the requirements were too complicated and they had to write freely in the weightless state, you can write as much as you write. They demanded solutions from the society. Then a German primary school student sent a package and wrote only one line: "Have you tried this ?" A pack of pencils was opened by NASA.

On the surface, there are two main roles in this story. One is to advocate flexible thinking and solve problems with simple technical means; the other is to laugh at American superstitious high-tech technologies, A waste of money makes things complicated, or the Russians are the experts who solve the problem.

Unfortunately, the story is only a story, and it is ridiculous.
The actual situation is as follows:
Astronauts in Early U.S. space activities used pencils, for example, in the Mercury plan and the Gemini plan, but the pencil was actually an unsatisfactory space pen, in 1967, the United States developed the AG 7 space pen for astronauts to use in space (this was developed by a U.S. private company looking at business opportunities for self-funding $2 million) and was applied in the Apollo program. The basic principle is the pen core seal, containing nitrogen, by gas pressure to replace the gravity environment on the earth to push ink pen tip ,.
The pen core does not leak oil and is not volatile. It can be written in reverse mode and used normally in water, oil, and space weightless conditions. The tip of the pen is formed by precisely cutting the seat roller cavity with the ultra-hard carbon tungsten pen beads (made by 27 processes), so there is no risk of falling off. The space pen can be written on almost any surface (Cement Pavement, stone, grinding wheel, steel, etc.) without fading, and can be written at minus 60 degrees, high temperature 200 degrees.

Because of its reliable performance and excellent practical effects, this pen is also an excellent tool in harsh environments such as space exploration, hiking, diving, and Polar exploration, in addition, it can be well applied in military and police, hospitals, construction, sports, cultural, and other specialties. It can also be used as gifts, collections, and articles for mass writing and painting.
By the way, this kind of pen is not expensive now. Shenzhou 6 uses about RMB, which is a good tool for many field workers. For aerospace activities, it is far from the cost.
As a result, the company has also received a generous return. The space coin has become a profitable product and a necessary Writing Tool for NASA and astronauts. What the Russians use is that Yang Liwei seems to be using it, Because Shenzhou 6 uses a space pen, but it is certain that, since 1967, space PENs were accepted and widely used by astronauts from various countries. Of course, other types of space writing tools were developed later, but whether they were short for pencils or pens by astronauts, it is similar to a pencil pen in the original sense. It cannot be opportunistic.

Looking back, is the original pencil suitable for space use? Have those who tell stories? Normal pencil refill is easy to break, this knows, and floating in a weightless environment, it becomes a dangerous goods, will drift into the nose, eyes, and even worse is graphite is conductive, A short circuit or other problems may occur when drifting into the appliance. (According to the information provided by netizens on the power grid, we can see that the space workers of the US-Soviet Union did not use the original pencil they thought before using the space pen, it is a specially developed product. It is a newly developed technology in terms of PEN structure and refill materials. It is almost different from a general pencil. Now there is an exhibition in the American Space Museum, which tells people from another perspective, however, in those years, the respectable Aerospace Workers considered the wide range of problems, which are far from comparable to those of puzzle stories.

Let's talk about the writing effect. What pens are you using when you are doing homework, taking notes, recording, and signing documents? How many pencils are there? I think most of them use pen signatures, pens, and ballpoint pens. since they do not like pencils, why do so many people take it for granted that astronauts like to use pencils? Is the pencil handwriting recognizable in space in many light conditions? Beautiful? What should I do if the friction turns dirty? Even the space pencil developed by the US-Soviet aerospace staff in early 1960s cannot fully meet the needs of space work. Therefore, after the development of the space pen, it was quickly affirmed by all parties and selected by NASA.

Back to this variant story, people who tell this story may often think about how to train scientific thinking, But have they ever thought about it when they laugh at Americans for being "stupid, what is the scientific thinking for analyzing and solving problems?

Does this mean Americans are stupid or smart? I discovered the problem, studied the problem, solved the problem, and finally set up my own brand. Astronauts used comfortable and safe space, and made money, it also provides convenience for other users who want to explore the North Pole and south pole. It is easy to interact with others, convenient to yourself, and easy to make money.

Even people who think they are smart with a pencil can only use a pencil all the time.