Theoretical Situation.

[manoeuver]

As some of you may have heard, the US is planning to go back to the Moon in five years or so.
Russia is also planning a manned Moon program.

I am arranging a US vs Russia arm-wrestling tournament on the Moon.
Winner selects the next US president.

YOU are the scorekeeper for the tourney.
Due to strict weight restrictions, you are only allowed to bring one pen with which to fulfill your duty.
The tournament lasts 30 days.

Due to the fictional nature of this situation, any of your fountain pens will function as though they were at home.

Space train leaves in 5 minutes. You have to fill a pen and get going.

Also, the floor is lava. You'd better go.

Which pen do you grab, and what do you fill it with?

[manoeuver]

I'd quickly swap an extra-fine nib into the Regular Bulkfiller I'm borrowing from my buddy Kaylen.
I'd top it up with Namiki Black.
good thing I'm already wearing my space pants!

[Tiggercat]

I'd take a Pilot 823 with Herbin Perle Noire. Boring perhaps, but effective.

Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk

[calamus]

I would take my 12 gauge Saiga fountain pen and fill it with silver buckshot, holy water, garlic, wolfbane and Noodler's Heart of Darkness, since the putative arm-wrestling tournament would clearly be a pretext staged by the forces of hell operating under the aegis of the New World Order. My mission would be to blast them all back to hell.

[catbert]

One of those spiffy Parker atomic pens. My buddy Heywood keeps losing them on the way up to the space station (@2:11).

https://escapevelocity.events/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/AtomicPen.png


https://youtu.be/0ZoSYsNADtY?t=131

[catbert]

Or, failing that, a Swiss pen for impartiality. A Caran d'Ache Astrograph (https://shop.madgallery.ch/category/mbandf/astrograph.html) would be overweight (and budget)

https://shop.madgallery.ch/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1000x1000/17f82f742ffe127f42dca9de82fb58b1/a/s/astrograph_rodium_mat.jpg

but an 849 with a handful of cartridges probably weighs less than a bulkfiller. I could pick it up in Duty Free at the spaceport.

https://cdn.carandache.com/int/5646-large/glass-blasting-palladium-finished-ecridor-variation-fountain-pen.jpg

[FredRydr]

https://jkleyngeld.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/pen-gun.jpg

[penwash]

I'm not taking chances.

"Assistant, fetch my Fisher Space Pen!!"

"B..but, sir... which one?"

https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-5ismhtd/images/stencil/2000x2000/products/499/4334/fisher_space_pen_bullet_space_pen_finishes__88432. 1455643165.jpg?c=2

[calamus]

Komerade -- here is Sovietsky pen https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/2pcAAOSwqRBbL6I7/s-l1600.jpg

[Kaputnik]

I would take one of my vintage Conklin crescent fillers, just to be a retro as possible, but my assistant back on Earth would beam new Namiki Blue ink into it directly using our stolen transporter. People in the vicinity had better hope that we got the coordinates right.

[Bold2013]

China might beat everyone there... noodlers ahab, broad bock Ti nib, and Kung Te-Cheng.

[FredRydr]

...on the Moon....
The ink would boil off in seconds. I'll take a mechanical pencil.

[calamus]

...on the Moon....
The ink would boil off in seconds. I'll take a mechanical pencil.

From OP: "Due to the fictional nature of this situation, any of your fountain pens will function as though they were at home."

[Scooby921]

Florida won't count correctly. The loser will cry collusion. Somehow China will step out from behind a shadow with a string in their hand. There will be numerous corrections to make. I'll take a few pencils and a very large eraser.

[ethernautrix]

Pilot 823 with PO nib and Noodler's Black.

[manoeuver]

The ink would boil off in seconds. I'll take a mechanical pencil.

Fred, I wasn't supposed to tell anybody, but the tourney is taking place in a pressurized stadium shaped like a Stegosaurus. Your FP will work perfectly.

[whichwatch]

The obvious choice..... the fountain pen that writes under whipped cream!

Everyone knows that green cheese stuff is BS. The moon is made of whipped cream. That's why it looks white!

Watch the short video to see this great pen in action!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA16IQx-MJE

[adhoc]

Pilot Custom 823 with FA nib!

[catbert]

Thinking about theoretical space pens led inevitably to Googling actual ones.

Video about the space pen v pencil myth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJrzxrN9dF4

Catalogue of writing instruments used in space:
http://spaceflownartifacts.com/flown_writing_instruments.html

... including John Young's Scripto pencil from Gemini 3. The nylon cord around the barrel (for extra grip with gloves) is reminiscent of a Parker Vacumatic.
http://spaceflownartifacts.com/images/scripto_gt3.jpg

[Kaputnik]

Thinking about theoretical space pens led inevitably to Googling actual ones.

Video about the space pen v pencil myth...

Thanks for the link. I've seen that myth debunked before, but this gives details which were new to me.

[calamus]

And you can get your very own...

https://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Space-AG7-Original-Astronaut/dp/B0015ZP2AC/ref=sr_1_3?hvadid=78134119981917&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&keywords=fisher+space+pen+ag7&qid=1554912014&s=office-products&sr=1-3

[azkid]

Parker 45 Special, F, black and a few packs of lightweight, space friendly cartridges to last a month. It always writes so well with Quink Black which is one of my favorite, best-behaved inks. Just an absolute joy to use them together.

I am also bringing cardboard, my Swiss army knife, and glue so I can add rocket fins during travel in a desparate, but doomed, attempt to be as cool some of you folks with your rocket pens above. [emoji23]

I almost said Pilot Stargazer because, well, space. But I didn't want to bring an ink bottle and that pen writes way too wet with feather prone Pilot Black. :(

[240KAR]

I like this situation... I'd go with the Conid Kingsize with a KOP XXF nib.

[gbryal]

I'm taking an Edison with me, my ebonite Hudson. The converter will last me 30 days, surely, if all I am doing is making hashmarks for the score.

[Chemyst]

A Committee of Safety pen, of course. The temptation, being that this contest selects the next president, would be to fill it with Whiteness of the Nationalist. However, that is very hard to use. So, maybe it could be blended down with a bit of True Blue Anti-Fascist.

http://noodlersink.com/wp-content/uploads/Boston-safety-pen-black-2.jpg (https://www.gouletpens.com/collections/noodlers-boston-safety-pen)

[calamus]

Just stay away from the Red Bern!

[Chemyst]

Just stay away from the Red Bern!

There has been a fair bit of support for another run of that ink.