The Pen That Saved Apollo 11 From Being A Permanent Moon Tomb. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin returned to the lunar module after their historic moonwalk, they realized they had a catastrophic problem. While maneuvering inside the cramped cabin in his bulky spacesuit, Aldrin's life-support backpack had accidentally smashed into the wall. The impact completely snapped off the vital circuit breaker switch needed to arm the ascent engine. Without that specific switch, the engine could not ignite, meaning the two astronauts would be permanently stranded on the lunar surface with no hope of a rescue mission. With only hours of oxygen remaining and Houston control scrambling for a workaround, the situation seemed entirely hopeless. The engineers on Earth frantically tried to find a way to bypass the electrical system, but time was rapidly running out. Exhausted and facing the very real possibility of dying 240,000 miles from home, Aldrin decided to take matters into his own hands. He began looking around the cabin for anything that could safely fit into the broken circuit breaker hole without conducting electricity and sparking a fatal fire in the oxygen-rich environment. Aldrin reached into his shoulder pocket and pulled out a standard-issue felt-tip marker. Because the pen's casing was made of plastic, it would not short out the electrical contacts. He carefully jammed the end of the marker into the broken switch hole and pushed. The circuit closed, the engine armed, and the lunar module successfully blasted off the moon's surface to reunite with Michael Collins in orbit. It turns out the greatest technological achievement in human history was ultimately saved by a piece of office stationery.