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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TP-82Open linkView original on lemmy.world279
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The attack in space angle was probably just to convince some manager.
The survival in Siberia is completely valid. US retrieves their astronauts in the ocean, but Soviet Russia didn't/doesn't have such a worldwide navy, so Siberia it is. It could take days for the cosmonauts to be recovered, so it was expected they might need to defend themselves against wildlife or even hunt.
I think every astronaut that embarked in the Soyuz spacecraft had to go through a wilderness survival training.
I know the french astronaut Thomas Pesquet had to survive a week in Siberian first in winter before embarking on the Soyuz.
Because space is haunted. And buckshot's superior spread helps ensure a hit while spinning around in zero-g. Solid slugs would go straight through the soyuz walls, duh.
It's the sequel we've always wanted to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
As long as it's about Buzz Aldrin and they're Nazi ghosts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Sky
??? If it was for in-space attacks, wouldn't it be more logical to mount a gun outside of ship 😆?
It was intended as a survival aid for emergency landings. It's not a shotgun, but a three barrel pistol (but it can shoot both normal rounds and shells). Another interesting detail - it's buttstock is a folding machete.
TP-87 was invented by request of A. Leonov after emergency landing of 'Voshod-2' where cosmonauts Leonov and Belyaev had to survive 3 days in wild taiga forest for a rescue team to retrieve them.
Love that story. Reminds me of Factorio, or Satisfactory or something.
Satisfactorio ?
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
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.
Long-time space journalist Jim Oberg called it “a deluxe all-in-one weapon with three barrels and a folding stock that doubles as a shovel and contains a swing-out machete.”
You'd think it was invented by the Swiss.
It could also be a handy final solution if you got trapped in space with no chance of rescue or return.
They say it was because their landing in the wilds of Siberia may require defense against wildlife. This is not true. The truth is that they have seen what resides in space, and would not venture into it's laid unarmed.
So... They watched Aliens?
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Possibly also for suicide if you get into a situation where you would slowly suffer to death?
I'd rather take hypoxia atleast then it not technically suicide.
A gunshot wound to the head is also not suicide.
If however both the gunshot wound and hypoxia are self inflicted then it is suicide, regardless if you pull the trigger or open a valve.
I can't seem to read the article, so forgive me if they answer this question, but how would a gun work in space? Most firearms I'm familiar with use oxidation reactions to propel ammunition. Were the shells filled with self-oxidizing propellant, or did they just use a completely different system?
Fun fact! All gunpowder is self oxidizing
I guess today is a learning day for all of us! I knew gunpowder contained nitrates, but I didn't realize that was its purpose, or that it allowed it to work in a vacuum.
basically all explosives are fuel combined with it's own oxidizer
Pretty much anything explosive need to be self oxidizing. If air can't get in to continue to feed the burning of the material (which never can during an explosion) than the oxygen needs to come from another source.
They were called spacial operations.