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And pencils are famously dangerous in space. Graphite is a conductor. You don't want conductive dust floating around a pressurized chamber filled with electro

And pencils are famously dangerous in space. Graphite is a conductor. You don't want conductive dust floating around a pressurized chamber filled with electronics, oxygen and people. There are lots of little health details about zero gravity, things that literally never come up on earth. Dust is a big one. Dust doesn't settle to the ground in space. You end up inhaling it. Graphite (also glass) is not the sort of things you want to inhale.

gorkish 3y ago
Yeah that's probably why the soviets (and the americans) used grease pencils instead of graphite pencils in space. The absurdism of this pencil/pen lore goes so deep that even the corrections can't get it right. Seriously does everyone just assume that people in the 60's were that stupid?
- psunavy03 3y ago
  No, it's just a meme about how Americans are supposedly nerds who overengineer things while Russians are supposedly commonsensical manly alcoholics.
- lovecg 3y ago
  It’s a compelling story that’s fun to tell at parties. These are often 90% untrue. Seriously think of any historic “fun fact”, it’s probably mostly false. The reality is much simpler. Pencils suck for long term record keeping. Grease pencils especially. A guy developed a space pen and asked NASA if they wanted it. They tested it and it worked pretty well, so they ordered a bunch. The Soviets then bought a bunch too by the way! But yeah that’s not nearly as fun as “dumb rich Americans over-engineer everything”.
  - sandworm101 3y ago
    During the space race, it was actually America that pioneered drinking alcohol in space. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/sep/13/buzz-aldrin-communion-moon https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/sep/13...
- a_gnostic 3y ago
  > Seriously does everyone just assume that people in the 60's were that stupid? Most people assume history is about getting smarter and better; That bartering changed to trade with seashells because currency is smarter. They don't understand the supply chain, and the difficulty of obtaining enough quantities of calcium carbonate to construct city walls. They don't understand that people can't economize on things they don't know. They think /dumb/ is synonymous with /ignorant/. Some do learn the difference, but choose to remain /stupid/ by assuming past people were dumb, instead of making the best out of what they had and knew.

gorkish 3y ago

Yeah that's probably why the soviets (and the americans) used grease pencils instead of graphite pencils in space. The absurdism of this pencil/pen lore goes so deep that even the corrections can't get it right. Seriously does everyone just assume that people in the 60's were that stupid?

psunavy03 3y ago
No, it's just a meme about how Americans are supposedly nerds who overengineer things while Russians are supposedly commonsensical manly alcoholics.
lovecg 3y ago
It’s a compelling story that’s fun to tell at parties. These are often 90% untrue. Seriously think of any historic “fun fact”, it’s probably mostly false. The reality is much simpler. Pencils suck for long term record keeping. Grease pencils especially. A guy developed a space pen and asked NASA if they wanted it. They tested it and it worked pretty well, so they ordered a bunch. The Soviets then bought a bunch too by the way! But yeah that’s not nearly as fun as “dumb rich Americans over-engineer everything”.
- sandworm101 3y ago
  During the space race, it was actually America that pioneered drinking alcohol in space. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/sep/13/buzz-aldrin-communion-moon https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/sep/13...
a_gnostic 3y ago
> Seriously does everyone just assume that people in the 60's were that stupid? Most people assume history is about getting smarter and better; That bartering changed to trade with seashells because currency is smarter. They don't understand the supply chain, and the difficulty of obtaining enough quantities of calcium carbonate to construct city walls. They don't understand that people can't economize on things they don't know. They think /dumb/ is synonymous with /ignorant/. Some do learn the difference, but choose to remain /stupid/ by assuming past people were dumb, instead of making the best out of what they had and knew.