Don't complicate things, keep'em simple

When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they discovered pens wouldn’t work at zero gravity (ink won’t flow down to the writing surface). NASA took 10 years and $12,000,000 to solve the problem. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.

And what did the Russians do? They used a pencil!