Writing in Space

The following writing instruments have been considered for space flight, only some have been demonstrated.

Wood Pencil. Pros: Simple with no moving parts, except for the sharpener. Cons: Wood, rubber eraser and graphite burn and create dust. Creates graphite dust that conducts electricity. Used by: US Nasa and Soviet space programs from the start.

Mechanical Pencil: Pros: Can be as wide as gloves require, yet light weight. No wood used with fire and dust concerns. Cons: Creates graphite dust that conducts electricity. Used by: US Nasa starting in 1960s Gemini program.

Grease Pencil on plastic slate: Pros: Simple with no moving parts. Paper shroud is peeled back when needed. Cons: Creates wrapper trash. Is not as durable as ink on paper. Used by: Soviet space program as an early substitute for wood pencils.

Felt tips: No data.

Ball Point: Pros: Cheap, and uses paper and is more permanent than graphite pencils and grease pencils, for log books and scientific note books. Cons: Not erasable. Used by: Soviet and then Russian space programs as a substitute for grease pencils as well as US Nasa and EU ESA.

Space Pen (a gas charged ball point pen): Pros: Rugged, with the strengths of a ball point, but works in a wider variety of conditions, zero gravity, vacuum and temperature. Cons: Slightly more expensive than alternatives. Used by: US Nasa Apollo, Shuttle, and ISS.

Thermal Printers (old fax paper, some receipts): Pros: Works as it does on earth. No ink required. Rolled paper can print US Letter, A4 and US Legal length paper with only one spooled source. Cons: Thermal paper turns gray or black with heat or direct sun light, does not lie flat, but curls back into spool shapes. Tears easily and burns very quickly. Used by: No data.

Ink Jet printers: The poorly described ISS printer is believed to be an ink jet printer, with Black and Color cartridges and standard paper stock choices. Pros: Standard computer technology and its color. Cons: Ink in this technology usually does not respond well to water. Used by: On ISS by Russian, US Nasa and other guest astronauts.

Laser Printers: Pros: Standard computer technology and can be in color. Robust and fast print rates. Cons: Creates a lot of heat to melt toner to paper. Toner is usually plastic chunks and develops static charge with vibration such as launch. Toner dust is very difficult to clean up. Used by: No data.

Pen Plotter: Uses felt tips. Used by: No data.

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