How to write space? Is the story of space pencil true?

The Big Bang Theory: Season 6, Episode 1

Plot: Howard and his wife demonstrated a pen floating in weightlessness to amuse her.

Scientific interpretation: This is a bridge that is easily overlooked. At first, American and former Soviet astronauts used pencils in space missions. But in weightlessness, graphite powder or broken nib will float around, which may cause short circuit or fire of the instrument.

Therefore, a pen factory in Nevada, USA, developed a ballpoint pen that can be used in zero gravity, and sold it to NASA, and successfully won the order from the latter. In 2008, a space pen launched with Apollo 17 spacecraft was auctioned for a high price of $23,900, while ordinary space pens on the market can be bought as long as 15 to $20.

China patent China Shenzhou VII space pen

Space writing pen is an important accessory of spacewalk. The United States and the former Soviet Union organized many researchers and invested huge sums of money in research and development. China Astronaut Center handed over the task of tackling key scientific and technological problems to China No.1 Pencil Co., Ltd. ... The company's scientific researchers carried forward the spirit of overcoming difficulties and living up to expectations, and finally contributed the "China Space Pen" to the world. When Shenzhou VII was launched, Chinese astronauts wrote a magical stroke in the spacewalk, recording this historical moment.

"China Shenzhou 7 Space Pen" is a "special pen" that adapts to astronauts' writing when they leave the cabin according to the space principle. It is the first space pen really used in the extravehicular environment in China's space history so far. China No.1 Pencil Co., Ltd. cooperated with China Astronaut Center to successfully develop a space writing pen, which filled the gap of domestic space technology and equipment and provided a writing tool for China's future space science and technology experiments. At present, this new technology has applied for a national patent.

For a long time, there was a story:

It is said that American astronauts are very depressed in space, and pens and ballpoint pens can never write in weightlessness. It took American scientists X years and more than X billion dollars (an expert who gave a speech at an agricultural university recently raised it to 654.38+000 billion dollars), and finally developed a pen that can be used in weightlessness. At the same time, Soviet astronauts have been using pencils in space (generally speaking, the audience will burst into friendly laughter at this time).

Of course, there are many variants of this story, which are similar to viruses and repeated with different flavors. For example, this variant: NASA has made great efforts to let astronauts write in space, but it has never been successful, because the requirements are too complicated, and they must write freely in weightlessness, and they can also write on their backs. As a last resort, they solicited solutions from the society. Later, a German pupil sent a package with only one line on it: "Have you tried this?" People from NASA opened it and found it was a pack of pencils.

On the surface, this story has two main functions. One is to advocate flexible thinking and solve problems with simple technical methods; There is also a kind of ridicule that Americans are superstitious about high technology, waste money and complicate things, or that Russians are experts in solving problems.

Unfortunately, the story is just a story after all, and it is ridiculous.