• pdqcp@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      edit-2
      6 days ago

      Why not? I’m not well versed in the theme. Would it be flammable?

      edit: just saw another post mentioning this: lack of gravity, enter floating in the electronic, causing short circuits as main risk.

      • SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        19
        ·
        6 days ago

        Also your body doesn’t do a good job of breaking it down either. Id imagine that in your lungs would suck.

        I have a piece of graphite in my leg from 7th grade still. I’m 33.

      • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        6 days ago

        The theme is to pretend recently-learned information was available half a century ago, and also to ignorantly inflate its importance. It turns out exposure to graphite dust in large concentrations can cause respiratory problems (like any kind of dust), but the amount of graphite emitted into the air by pencil use is insignificant, even in zero gravity.

  • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    43
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    7 days ago

    also, fucking pencil shavings?

    pencil shavings contain graphite (great for getting into shit and shorting shit out) and thin paper (think, kindling)

    did the russians gnaw the fucking things sharp? no? idiots…

      • yuri@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        6 days ago

        side note, mechanical grease pencils are literally some of the best goddamn marking tools ever invented by humans, and the fact that we’ve moved away from them as a standard in favor of sharpie-style disposible markers is APPALLING.

        there’s myriad “industrial” markers you can buy, which are generally especially well suited to one specific inclement situation. low temp markers won’t freeze, but will often bleed and feather. oil-proof markers will write on a slippery surface, but will smear and take ages to dry proper (RIP lefties). paint markers can write on anything, but only as long as the surface doesn’t immediately destroy your nib and prevent future wicking.

        grease pencils (quality ones at least) go down like a crayon, stick to ANYTHING, and generally won’t smear at all. obviously no one should be writing their thesis with one, but they can do pretty much everything we use permanent markers for. they’re also cheaper and produce far less waste.

        as far as i can tell the biggest downside is there’s a smaller profit margin for the manufacturers.

        • spicy pancake@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          6 days ago

          I love my grease pencils and use them for writing kitchen leftover contents on glass and ceramic dishes. This works like a dream when the dish is warm and just fine when the dish is room temperature.

          However, it’s nearly impossible to write on cold or frozen dishes. In my old lab when was young and stupid, I’d hold the spot I wanted to write on over a flame for a few seconds (lucky I never exploded a liter of expensive research water and glass on myself, or worse). Now I do my best with vigorously rubbing the spot with a kitchen towel for a few seconds, but still usually get a barely readable mark.

          Aside from figuring out how to etch those little white squares that lab glassware has onto my kitchen dishes, anyone have any ideas around this?

          • yuri@pawb.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            6 days ago

            also you can etch those lil white squares surprisingly easily with commercially available glass etching creams, my mom used to fuck around with em a lot in like the 90’s i think.

            • spicy pancake@lemmy.zip
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              6 days ago

              oh god oh fuck what have you done do you understand how many niche DIY toolkits I have now I’m forced to add another

              edit: oh wait it’s just one bottle. what’s one more bottle of engineering goo? 🫠

          • yuri@pawb.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            6 days ago

            maybe a difference in the actual composition of the grease? i was writing on polished stainless pots at below freezing temps, but i was ALSO using new-old-stock refills bc the current standard size is it’s own proprietary can of worms lol

        • Madison420@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          6 days ago

          Im a fan of grease pencils yeah, especially for marking on windows. I’m a mechanic and sometimes I just do the diag notes on the cars Windows or if laziness.

      • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        7 days ago

        nice alternative, and that’d make great sense except… now you have a bunch of long strings of grease covered paper floating about the cabin.

        so no. no thanks.

          • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            5
            ·
            6 days ago

            having used grease pencils before, no thanks, due to the remainder of greasy paper you unwind as you use it.

            • Mesophar@pawb.social
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              8
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              6 days ago

              They aren’t suggesting using a grease pencil as a better alternative to a graphite pencil, they are saying that the Russian cosmonauts used grease pencils before moving to a pressurized pen.

              You don’t need to say “no thanks” to it, no one is suggesting using it. The first comment was ambiguous, but your response to this one is just baffling.

        • SparroHawc@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          6 days ago

          I’m pretty sure astronauts are trained on the usage of garbage receptacles.

  • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    33
    ·
    7 days ago

    I’ve owned a fair few Fisher Space Pens throughout the years. It’s an interesting bit of space memorabilia that’s functional and affordable. It’s an impressive bit of engineering.

    As a space nerd, I love the pen. As a pen guy…. There’s better options. The cartridge just doesn’t write as smooth as I like, nor is it a really bold, saturated line. For daily actual writing use, I use a Lamy Safari rollerball or a Pilot B2P.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      7 days ago

      They’re small, but when you open them up, they’re full-sized. It fits in my knockoff Ridge wallet. I buy blue cartridges because I hate signing stuff in black.

      10/10 for me, but it’s all about utility for me.

  • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    edit-2
    6 days ago

    For decades these pens have been brought up to criticize wasteful spending, inaccurately. Fisher Price didn’t even develop the pens for NASA, they were just a sales gimmick, and NASA didn’t spend thousands of dollars each on them, they just bought them. Space flight was getting a lot of publicity back then, so products that related themselves to space were popular, like Space Food Sticks - tootsie-rollish snacks supposedly full of protein and nourishment. To me they tasted too much like raw flour. “Energy” of course was a euphemism for sugar.

    • yesman@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 days ago

      People drag the Soviets for being reckless with the lives of their crews, but forget that the USA melted three men in a training exercise.

      • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        7 days ago

        at least those three were known, acknowledged and not covered in secrecy.

        we really have no idea how many the sov’s lost in their rush to stay ahead / catch up to the moon landings. truly, there’s no way to fucking know, even the cosmonauts themselves never knew the total extent.

        maybe they both deserve to be dragged a bit eh? pfft

  • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    26
    ·
    7 days ago

    Plus pressurized pens are useful in more than just zero-g. I used to use one along with a waterproof note pad for note taking in the field. They’re also not prohibitively expensive, although the ones from Fisher itself carry a pretty huge brand name markup, other companies sell them for a couple bucks each.

      • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        7 days ago

        idk how it works but it does. I’ve been using Rite in the Rain for years but there are others too if you search it up.

        • EpeeGnome@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          7 days ago

          Just guessing here but I imagine the ink doesn’t contain any water, so an otherwise absorbent material that is treated with a hydrophobic coating would probably work for that.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        7 days ago

        the paper doesnt necessarily need to absorb the ink, the ink just needs to dry on the surface is such a way that it adheres well enough it doesn’t rub off, or stay wet.

        So really, you want a high adhesion, quick drying ink, which would basically let you write on any surface it’ll stick to.

  • Eyedust@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    7 days ago

    I got big into pens for a bit before settling on my edc one-size-fits-most pen. During my travels, I saw that the Fisher Space pens are still highly regarded as great writers even for us grounded folk. Yeah, there’s better, but for the size and build quality they’re great options. I went with the Ti Arto by Big Idea Design instead. Just so I could use basically any pen cartridges (except cheap bic roller ball).

    Huh, the Arto used to be 70usd. I’d say not worth anymore. I got the black one and the paint has already chipped plus the clip is not titanium unless you buy an expensive “premium” clip.

  • Zerush@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    533
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 days ago

    The reason not to use pencils in Space wasn’t that Pencil are inflamable, the main reason was the graphit dust produced by Pencils, which because of the lack of gravity, enter floating in the electronic, causing short circuits as main risk.

    • copd@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      7 days ago

      Genuine question. why did you choose to use “inflammable” instead of “flammable”?

      • Manticore@lemmy.nz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        7 days ago

        Inflame was the original word for ‘to ignite’ - to set aflame, to set on fire. We still see if in metaphor, ‘inflammatory argument’ or ‘inflamed passion’, for example.

        So an inflammable object was one you can inflame (or enflame). The word ‘flammable’ came about later, probably to reduce confusion for people who thought it mean ‘un-flameable’.

        These days we use flammable on labels for safety reasons, but inflame is still peppered throughout language in metaphor and medicine, and both are correct.

    • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      7 days ago

      and thin paper shavings = space kindling. the entire argument is fucking dumb.

      perhaps the sovs gnawed their pencils sharp and consumed all the graphite fragments and shavings lol. good lil soviet space beavers

      • jqubed@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        6 days ago

        The Soviets were using grease pencils IIRC before also switching to the Fisher Space Pen around 1969. The grease pencil eliminated the risk of graphite floating around but the writing quality isn’t great.

      • kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        7 days ago

        If I remember correctly, the Soviet engines were a lot harder to short out, so pencils weren’t as big a problem in their spacecraft.

        • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          7 days ago

          the Soviet engines were a lot harder to short out,

          bwahaha this is idiotic. anyone familiar with the long litany of rocket failures out of baiknor knows their engines weren’t ‘harder to short out’ whatever silly shit you mean with it.

          short out what? the alternator? bwahahahahaahahahaha

          short out the fuse box? dear god, I’m dying here

        • nyctre@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          31
          arrow-down
          10
          ·
          edit-2
          7 days ago

          Technically, I think they’re different. Flammable means that it can be lit on fire, like wood or something. Whereas inflammable means it can catch fire on its own, like gas, for example.

          Edit: after some googling, it appears that my source was shit and should be disregarded. They do indeed appear to be synonyms. And also, I was thinking of gasoline. I think I was thinking of the “gas pedal” and that threw me off.

          • SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            6 days ago

            If you want to keep things crystal clear, choose flammable when you are referring to something that catches fire and burns easily, and use the relatively recent nonflammable when referring to something that doesn’t catch fire and burn easily. Inflammable is just likely to enflame confusion.

            The people at Merriam are alright 👌

        • Wanderer@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          6 days ago

          Flammable isn’t a word.

          Just Americans got confused by it so it became a word.