The First Pen on the Moon
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon that fateful day back in 1969 they achieved the greatest accomplishment in the history of humanity...leaving the boundaries of the Earth and traveling through space to a distant alien world. It's no wonder that the men became legends in their own time. Even some of the simple little tools that they used obtained almost mythical status, and it is no wonder. The Moon landing was a magnificent moment and a remarkable achievement...one that will forever go down in the annuls of history. It may have only been a small step for man but it was definitely a giant leap for mankind.
Of course there were a lot of other people involved in the effort who also deserve some credit for that small step. In order to overcome the Earth's gravity and travel through space, rockets had to be built, fuel had to be developed, a capsule had to be designed that could provide the men inside with oxygen, as well as all of the other basic necessities of life. The proper calculations had to be made in order to keep the space craft from missing its target and whizzing off into the never-ending void of deep space. Space suits had to be created that would protect the astronauts from the burning heat and freezing cold temperatures that exist outside the atmosphere, as well as the deadly cosmic rays that bombard any space traveler who dares to leave the safe confines of their home planet. It took a whole team of hundreds, if not thousands of people to overcome all of these potentially deadly obstacles.
When all of the dangers and difficulties are taken into consideration it is amazing that anybody had the courage and fortitude to even try to take that giant leap. Neil and Buzz are definitely American heroes, as are the other astronauts who went into space before them.
Some credit for the Moon landing should also be given to the cosmonauts from the former Soviet Union. It was the Soviets and their space program that first galvanized the United states into action. When it was announced in 1957 that the tiny little Sputnik satellite had made it into orbit it caught the Americans completely by surprise. The thought of Russian space craft circling the earth armed with spy cameras or nuclear weapons was not a pleasant thought, especially in the middle of the Cold War when both sides were trying desperately to gain a military advantage over the other. When President Kennedy assumed office three years later he immediately announced the goal to put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade and the space race was on.
It is interesting to compare the contrast between the two nations and how they went about attempting to achieve their goals. The United States was a capitalist country with a free market economy that produced enormous amounts of wealth that could be poured into the space program. The Soviet Union was a communist country where everything was owned and tightly controlled by the government.
In the USA individual citizens had the freedom and liberty to come up with new ideas, put them into action and succeed to the best of their abilities. In the USSR only the government was allowed to have new ideas and the people just blindly carried out their orders while trying to not draw unwarranted attention to themselves.
In the United States where practically every extravagance was readily available, more was never enough and too much was usually just right. In Communist Russia the emphasis was always on efficiency, expediency and constantly making do with less.
The difference in the social and economic make-up of the two countries determined the style and overall success of each of their space programs. While American scientists were working in spotlessly clean, air-conditioned laboratories with every modern convenience at their disposal the Soviets were stuck in old worn out warehouses with broken windows and dirty concrete floors. Instead of tables the Soviet engineers had to make do with a sheet of plywood placed on top of an empty cardboard box. For heat they burned firewood in old oil drums.
While NASA engineers were given virtually an unlimited budget to design and construct any part necessary to build their equipment, the Russian rocket scientists were scrounging around in junkyards trying to find parts that they could salvage and modify to fit their needs. Is it any wonder that when the big Saturn V rocket lifted the Apollo 11 crew towards the Moon the Soviets huge N-1s were still blowing up on the launchpad? Given the obstacles and disadvantages they had to overcome it is a wonder the Russians ever even got off the ground.
The fact that they beat their American counterparts into space and even managed to put a few things into orbit is a testimony to the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the Soviet engineers. They may not have had the bountiful budget that the NASA scientists had but they more than made up for it in pragmatic simplicity.
No greater example of the difference between the two countries and their space programs can be found than in their choice of writing instruments. The NASA scientists knew that the astronauts were going to need something to write with on their lunar voyage. Mathematical calculations would need to be performed, notes and ideas would need to be jotted down, and not just any old ink pen would work in the harsh environment of space. Lack of gravity and extreme temperatures have a tendency to make the standard ballpoint pretty much useless. NASA knew that something special would be needed to claim the title of the first pen on the Moon.
What they came up with was the Fisher Apollo AG-7 space pen, or astro pen. This little marvel of science was actually developed by a private entrepreneur, Paul fisher, who owned the Fisher Pen Company. He approached NASA about using the pen and after an extensive evaluation process it was eventually selected by NASA to be used by the astronauts on the Apollo missions.
The pen basically consisted of a nitrogen filled canister that was pressurized at a rate of 50 pounds per square inch. The gas pressed against a plunger that forced an almost solid mixture of thixotropic ink against a revolving ball point that liquefied the ink whenever it was rotated. The ball itself was an ultra hard Tungsten Carbide ball held in a stainless steel socket. In spite of the fact that it was still the same general size and shape as a standard ball point pen it was a thing of beauty and it worked as well as it looked.
The little six-inch long astro pen could write for more than seven miles which was 300% further than any other ball-point pen. It could write upside-down, against walls or any other vertical surface. It could reportedly write over butter, grease, sweaty hand-prints or even totally submerged under water. It could write in the burning heat or freezing cold of outer space, and even if it were bombarded with deadly cosmic rays. It was claimed that the thing would even be capable of writing when it was a hundred years old. The special ink that was in it was guaranteed to not clot, leak, clog, dry out or evaporate. It would always write instantly at the slightest touch, as long as the ball was contacting a surface.
According to contemporary promotional literature the AG-7 space-pen cost a grand total of one million dollars to develop back in 1969. That is a staggering sum for what was basically a glorified ink pen. Still, Paul Fisher and NASA both deemed it to be well worth the money. It was a perfect example of what the most prosperous nation in the world can do when the people put their best minds to solving a problem.
And what did NASA's competitors in the race to the Moon do to overcome the challenge of writing in space? When the Soviet Union was faced with the dilemma of finding an instrument that could write in zero gravity, in the freezing vacuum or burning heat of outer space...or even when being bombarded by deadly cosmic rays...they used the same simplistic solutions the Soviet scientists were famous for...they used a pencil.
Of course it wasn't just the Soviets who had to come up with simple solutions. Many people are not aware of it but Neil and Buzz almost didn't make it back from that first Moon mission. There was a minor malfunction in the space craft that could have turned into a major problem if a quick solution had not been found and legend has it that a certain little pen may have played a major role in it.
When the two intrepid explorers climbed back into the Lunar Lander after their final space walk they could see that there was a problem. Lying on the floor was a small piece of a circuit breaker that was part of the ignition switch that would launch the craft away from the Moon. Without the circuit breaker the craft could not take off. It was definitely not a good situation.
As an army of engineers mobilized back on Earth to attempt to solve the problem the astronauts tried to find a fix themselves. Looking at all of the different tools that they had at their disposal Buzz Aldrin realized that the tip of a pen could be used to close the circuit and activate the ignition without causing any sparks or setting anything on fire. He quickly pulled a pen out of his pocket, used it to start the engine and the astronauts were home free.
Naturally, as with any good legend, there is a bit of controversy over just which pen was used. The Fisher Pen Company, which changed it's name to the Fisher Space Pen Company, claimed it was their very own Fisher AG-7 space pen that saved the day and they proceeded to launch a major advertising campaign saying so. They were so successful at convincing people that the astro-pen was the real hero that even NASA picked up the story and added it to their official record. The space agency's stamp of approval just about gave the first pen on the Moon its legendary status.
There are those who question the accepted story however, one of them being Buzz Aldrin himself. According to Aldrin it wasn't the Fisher Space Pen that he used to get the engine started but a Dura felt tip marker. Neil Armstrong confirmed the use of the marker so that should have pretty much settled any controversy. It's not that easy to change a legend however. Even now, several years after the space pen story was refuted, its legendary status continues to grow and many people, including some senior officials at NASA still continue to credit the Fisher space pen with the heroic deed.
Regardless of whether it was the pen or the marker that actually started the space craft the legend no doubt will continue to grow. Paul Fisher's little space pen will always be remembered as the first pen on the Moon, and just like Neil and Buzz, it will forever be a part of history.
