Has anyone ever fired a gun in space or on the moon?

Factual Questions
1

Inspired by This thread on whether or not the Space Shuttle can defend itself, it’s gotten me wondering: Has anyone ever fired a gun in space or on the moon? I can’t imagine it would be possible to actually hold or operate a firearm in a conventional space suit, but surely it would be possible to mount a gun on a moon buggy or rover vehicle for scientific purposes (measuring ballistic effects, gravity, etc).

Anyone know if it’s ever been done or attempted?

2

I misread the title as “Has anyone ever fired a gun in the space of a room” and I was going to tell the story about the time my dad was cleaning his .45 while on his 3rd espresso. If you just want to know the end, my mom cried.

3

With some clumsiness, it would be possible. Some weapons have removable trigger guards so they can be fired while wearing thick mittens in cold weather. I imagine the same would apply to space suits.

That said, I’m pretty certain the answer is “no” and 100% certain it’s “no” for the on-the-moon part of your question. The followup question is “why would anyone have wanted to?” It’s a bizarre way to measure gravity.

I’m pleased we didn’t immediately get someone posting “but a gun can’t fire in a vacuum, where would the oxygen come from.” You usually get that at least once in these threads.

4

You’re Americans, it’s what you do!!

(You have the right to bear arms (on the moon))

5

I’m interested in why you decided to condescendingly bring this up and shoot it down, but couldn’t be arsed to provide an answer to your own question. SDMB tradition, I guess.

Here’s an interesting FAQ on the subject. I’m still curious where the oxygen comes from; I looked up gunpowder in Wikipedia expecting it to be oxidized but I’m still unclear on whether it is or not.

6

I would have to assume that bullets are airproof. So whatever boom they get is formed entirely with what is in the cavity behind the bullet.

I likewise don’t know how much oxygen is in the bullet (and I’m a bit dubious on the idea that a thing can’t burn in space without oxygen*), but obviously there is enough.

  • Burning is just atoms that have been excited. Now I can imagine the amazing cold of a vacuum immediately damping out this excited state, but I don’t see why you would need oxygen given as that anything which has atoms can become excited just the same as oxygen can. I suspect that oxygen is just a good ingredient for continued thermic reactions that don’t burn themselves out.
7

I seem to remember that in traditional gunpowder it comes from salpetre (KNO3) - nitrates contain plenty of spare oxygen with which to oxidise the charcoal and sulphur, once they have been persuaded to decompose into NO2 etc. Modern propellants use the same principle, but using different chemicals.

It’s the sort of question that most people familiar with ammunition or guns would regard as too obvious to answer - let’s face it, if firearms relied on sucking air down the barrel past the bullet, or through holes into the firing chamber, it would be pretty noticeable.

8

Umm, no. Burning is not just atoms that have been excited. Burning, or combustion is an exothermic chemical reaction between a fuel and an oxidant, usually oxygen. No oxidant, no combustion.

9

haha… i have a priceless mental picture right now :smiley:

10

The Soviets launched a Salyut with a 30mm Nudelman cannon. I don’t know if it was ever test fired in orbit.

11

That’s interesting. Did they do it as part of an experiment or did they anticipate needing to use it in anger? I’d think they would go ahead and try it out after going to all the trouble.

12

Wouldn’t a fired round stick around in orbit? That might be one reason. Unless they’re powerful enough to break orbit, that loopback would be a bitch.

13

For the same reason Shepard played golf on the moon - just to see what’d happen, for fun even. Though I think having a loaded firearm aboard a spaceflight may be asking for a catastrophic accident.

14

I’ve fired a gun at the moon (it pissed me off), does that count? :slight_smile:

At $10,000/pound or so for LEO, the price for hauling up my beloved Colt could buy me a new car. Wasn’t there a probe that fired a projectile at an asteroid? Probably didn’t use gunpowder…

Wait a minute, didn’t Bond do it in Moonraker? I think Dirk Pitt did it once as well.

15

From here:

I would imagine bullets travel fast enough so that they either re-enter the atmosphere or attain a different, fairly screwed up orbit which would degenerate quickly.

16

Well, assuming you can fire it (what with the bulky space suit and all), then at least it would be pretty accurate since there would be no bullet drop (ignoring gravity from nearby planetary bodies).

17

I’m American now? I don’t remember taking the citizenship test or anything…

18

Ok, that’s the second one today. The first one was Sampiro’s “Ladel Ladel Ladel”.

I haven’t laughed this hard in months.

19

I read it the same way, and was going to tell the story of a friend who’s grandfather (who raised him) decided to get rid of a bat that got into the house by shooting it. With a shotgun. In the house. With SLUGS instead of buckshot. Squeezed off about three wall/ceiling destroying rounds before deciding another approach might be better.

20

Right, combustion is “merely” rust at high speed.

We’ve had this discussion before about weapons being fired in space. AFAWK, no crew has carried a firearm into space, much less test fired one. It could be done, however. One of the problems for someone in orbit would be the recoil, every action having an equal reaction and all that. One science writer once theorized that a scimitar would be a better weapon for astronauts to carry than anything else.