[mseo]

That story seems more or less to be a myth, too. And there seems to be a good reason why they used from pencils, which they used in the beginning to pens:

"Pencils may not have been the best choice anyway. The tips flaked and broke off, drifting in microgravity where they could potentially harm an astronaut or equipment. And pencils are flammable--a quality NASA wanted to avoid in onboard objects after the Apollo 1 fire."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-n...

[mdifrgechd]

Interesting, I had meant to point out that I had no evidence one way or the other if it was actually true, the point is just the idea of keeping it simple.

And your counterpoint about the graphite floating around is a good parable for why seemingly obvious, "clever" solutions often don't actually work, and that armchair critics should not assume the solution team was not smart enough to consider the obvious ideas :)

[nullsense]

Never considered the compressed ink pens that could write in space were an example of Chesterton's Fence. Damn. The fence strikes again.