TIL Soviet cosmonauts carried a shotgun on space missions
TIL Soviet cosmonauts carried a shotgun on space missions
It was purportedly (and probably in actuality) intended as a survival aid to be used after landings and before recovery in the Siberian wilderness, although allegedly was intended as a defensive weapon against in-space attacks by the US space program.
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Would this actually work effectively in space?
Why wouldn't it?
Ed: the only thing that might not work is gunpowder in vacuum due to lack of oxygen, but gunpowder has oxidiser included, so yes it would.
I had to look up whether gunpowder requires oxygen to burn (it doesn't)
Gunpowder does actually require oxygen to burn, it just happens to bring its own oxygen with it.
That's what I assumed, but why ass-ume when I live in the information age 😁
if it needed oxygen from the air it would have to breathe, the explosion happens inside the barrel before it mixes with the atmosphere
Ah! This is true and more precise
Heat dissipation is an issue since there's no air around to cool the barrel, although for this three shot weapon (two shotgun one rifle) it wouldn't be a problem. This gun is mostly to fend off bears when you land in Siberia.
You are half right. The gun definitely is for bears, but, and get this, space bears
Normal or cocaine....space...bears?
Miniature giant space bears.
Recoil would be a removed though lol
According to GPT4 :
Yes, a shotgun could function in space. Firearms, including shotguns, rely on self-contained oxidizers in their ammunition to ignite the propellant, so they do not require atmospheric oxygen to fire.
However, the lack of air would mean there's no medium to carry the shockwave, so the gun's report would not be audible. Additionally, the recoil could cause more significant uncontrolled movement due to the lack of air resistance and gravity to stabilize the shooter. The cold temperatures in space might also affect the mechanical parts, potentially leading to jamming or other issues if the weapon isn't specially designed for such an environment.
Yes, I guess? But firing a gun inside a spacecraft would be a bad idea... and also firing it while spacewalking would be a bad idea unless you were very sure that you were very well braced & tethered.
Or the gun is just an emergency propulsion system in case you lose your tether....
Crazy enough plan to be Russian.
You could load it with very small, light, or soft pellets, they don't need to be very damaging to make a hole in a suit which would be near certainly fatal.
Well, considering that many early spacecraft and space stations were running oxygen rich atmospheres, it would probably mean the end of anyone involved in a rather spectacular fireball.
I'd kind of hope everyone would know better than that after the disastrous Apollo I fire.