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

[Pushkin]

@Stranger On A Train

It would probably be something measurable, but I wouldn’t expect much. Air compresses readily, and the difference in pressure between the ambient atmosphere in front of the bullet and the propellant gases behind it is huge. I’d guess the difference to be no more than a few tens of fps, if that; less than the typical variation from round to round.

Stranger

So would an automatic rifle with a gas operated mechanism suffer at all?

[slaphead]

@Pushkin

So would an automatic rifle with a gas operated mechanism suffer at all?

It doesn’t seem likely - the gas is bled off from behind the bullet, and the pressure presumably drops very rapidly after the bullet leaves the muzzle even in atmosphere. Having the weapon overheat (in the light) or the lubricant freeze (in the shade) may be more of a problem.

[iamthewalrus_3]

@Pushkin

Using a gun on the moon was included in a lateral thinking test Dad got from work. The idea was that you’d point in the opposite direction you wanted to move in and shoot to propel yourself across the surface of the moon without having to walk this saving energy.

That would work only marginally better on the moon than on the Earth. There’s less gravitational force on the moon, for sure, but you still have the same mass. The only reason it would work any better at all is that if you jump on the moon, you stay up longer, so there’s a longer time for the (really weak) force the gun applied to you to cover some ground. You’d probably go three or four inches instead of one.

Shooting a gun on the moon might knock you over more easily, but only because you’re probably not experienced in keeping your balance at lower g.

[Leo_Bloom]

Hello from the future, oh Buck Rogers zombies.

Th [del]Russians[/del] Soviets, God love 'em, did it. Once: 1975.

ISS was but a twinkle in the eyes then.

Remembering That Time the Soviet Union Shot a Top-Secret Space Cannon While...

FTR, a GQ search on “guns in space” popped up three threads from 2007-2008, including a later one. Revived this because it had the most posts.

[Valgard]

Leo, see posts #10 and #15 from 2007

[Leo_Bloom]

Shit is it cited? I kind of thought maybe but the thread was tl;dr, and I didn’t check the date of my cite.

• flips upscreen *
• checks Wiki cited in #15, which has many more and better references than this Pop Mechanics article, which should surprise no one considering its Pop M. *
• finds no saving grace or redeeming value in thread revivification *
  My apologies to the quick among us. Rest, disturbed spirits of the underworld.

[Maus_Magill]

Wow - ninja’d in a zombie thread. That’s got to be some sort of record.

[Czarcasm]

@Maus_Magill

Wow - ninja’d in a zombie thread. That’s got to be some sort of record.

Which are deadlier: ninja zombies, or zombie ninjas?

[CalMeacham]

One of the things I find amusing is that, while it would seem to be the height of idiocy to bring a gun on a space ship (if it goes off, nothing good can come of it, while LOTS of bad things can. And there’s no easy way to fix a lot of them.), an awful lot of books and movies have people doing precisely that. Even worse, it’s done by pretty respected science fiction authors and filmmakers. I guess there’s something just too good about using firearms to advance your story and provide Action! and Excitement!
Rocketship Galileo by Robert Heinlein – his intrepid Boy Explorers and the Scientist Uncle bring a couple of Garand rifles to the Moon ( M1 Garand - Wikipedia ) Of course, they come in mighty handy, against neo-Nazis who have bombs of various kinds on the moon (and their own guns), but there’s no way they could’ve known that when they set out. Heinlein has them rationalizing the guns as possibly necessary if they set down in a dangerous area (on Earth, when they return)

It! The Terror from Beyond Space – 1950s movie scripted by Jerome Bixby, who ought to know better. Not only the Second Martian Expedition (the subject of this film) but also the First (which we hear about) brought firearms to Mars. The sole survivor of the first expedition is accused of murdering his fellow crewmembers with the gun (See? I told you – nothing but trouble), but it turns out to be the work of a Mars creature, which ends up stowing aboard their ship for the trip back. When they learn about it they not only use the guns to try to kill it (On a space ship!), but they also try grenades! (ON A SPACESHIP!! Why do they even HAVE grenades on a space ship?) None of this is effective, of course – they kill the Beast by opening the airlock. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Ridley Scott’s Alien owes a big debt to It!.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars – dumb title, but pretty decent SF film from 1964 about the lone survivor of the First Expedition to Mars surviving on the surface on his own (Did Andy Weir see this before he wrote The Martian? Somebody has undoubtedly researched that to death) when he sees something unusual, he pulls out – A Gun! They provided this first Martian expedition with a gun, too! Fortunately, he avoids the fate of the guy in It!, and doesn’t shoot what turns out to be the expedition monkey.

Angry Red Planet – interesting low-budget pic by Moe Howard’s (of the Three Stooges) son-in-law (Who also directed some of the Stooge’s later films, and started out drawing them for the comic books). The First Expedition to Mars (again!) encounters interesting things, all filmed in “Mars Scope” (Highly solarized prints tinted red). Of course, they bring a Gun, but at least it’s some kind of futuristic sonic gun. It comes in useful for blinding a Rat-Bat-Spider, and doing in a cannibalistic plant . But it’s useless against Giant Space Amoeba.

[brossa]

@CalMeacham

Angry Red Planet – interesting low-budget pic by Moe Howard’s (of the Three Stooges) son-in-law (Who also directed some of the Stooge’s later films, and started out drawing them for the comic books). The First Expedition to Mars (again!) encounters interesting things, all filmed in “Mars Scope” (Highly solarized prints tinted red). Of course, they bring a Gun, but at least it’s some kind of futuristic sonic gun. It comes in useful for blinding a Rat-Bat-Spider, and doing in a cannibalistic plant . But it’s useless against Giant Space Amoeba.

You forgot to mention the pistol that Captain Swinging Dick Ladykiller lovingly polished on the bridge.

[Leo_Bloom]

High Noon in space with Sean Connery, however, the rifles were imperative, for art historical/cultural reasons.

What was the name of that movie? It’s terrific.

ETA: shotguns.

[Czarcasm]

Outland.

[Ranger_Jeff]

There was a short story about during the Cold War days, there were both American and Soviet settlements on the Moon. And early during their time of settlement, there was a disagreement they tried to solve with infantry squads armed with firearms. The result was that both sides had to end up developing computers powerful enough to predict the orbits of the not so spent bullets which ended up in a very low lunar orbit. And building bullet proof walls to protect their above ground dwellings.

Anyone else remember that one?

[Martini_Enfield]

@CalMeacham

One of the things I find amusing is that, while it would seem to be the height of idiocy to bring a gun on a space ship (if it goes off, nothing good can come of it, while LOTS of bad things can. And there’s no easy way to fix a lot of them.), an awful lot of books and movies have people doing precisely that. Even worse, it’s done by pretty respected science fiction authors and filmmakers. I guess there’s something just too good about using firearms to advance your story and provide Action! and Excitement!

As has been mentioned, the Soviets had firearms on their spaceships - not for any Comrade Rouble Rogersovitch in the 26th Century-type shenanigans, but for defence against wild animals or signalling for help in the interval between landing in the middle of nowhere and someone coming to get them.

[Leo_Bloom]

@Leo_Bloom

High Noon in space with Sean Connery, however, the rifles were imperative, for art historical/cultural reasons.

What was the name of that movie? It’s terrific.

ETA: shotguns.

Specifically, see:
Shotguns in space shotguns in space - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board

From 2001 (significant…no.)

[Ignatz]

@AtomicDog

If not a gun, do explosives count?

Apollo active seismic experiments
Too bad the rover cameras were deactivated before the mortars were set off. I would have liked to have seen those fireworks.

I saw that blast

off.

[eburacum45]

@CalMeacham

One of the things I find amusing is that, while it would seem to be the height of idiocy to bring a gun on a space ship (if it goes off, nothing good can come of it, while LOTS of bad things can. And there’s no easy way to fix a lot of them.), an awful lot of books and movies have people doing precisely that. Even worse, it’s done by pretty respected science fiction authors and filmmakers. I guess there’s something just too good about using firearms to advance your story and provide Action! and Excitement!

Since Russian spacecraft have guns in their survival kits, and Russians spacecraft are the only ones taking people to and from orbit at the moment, this seems fairly realistic to me. Heinlein even got the rationale correct.

[user_hostile]

@Czarcasm

Outland.

Or, as Richard Corliss (film critic for Time magazine) called it: High Moon*

*Paywall

[Folly]

@Ranger_Jeff

There was a short story about during the Cold War days, there were both American and Soviet settlements on the Moon. And early during their time of settlement, there was a disagreement they tried to solve with infantry squads armed with firearms. The result was that both sides had to end up developing computers powerful enough to predict the orbits of the not so spent bullets which ended up in a very low lunar orbit. And building bullet proof walls to protect their above ground dwellings.

Anyone else remember that one?

I remember reading that short story. Almost certainly from a library book checked out in the late 80s, early 90s. The best I can google about it though is it might be by Ben Bova.

[Ranger_Jeff]

@Ranger_Jeff

There was a short story about during the Cold War days, there were both American and Soviet settlements on the Moon. And early during their time of settlement, there was a disagreement they tried to solve with infantry squads armed with firearms. The result was that both sides had to end up developing computers powerful enough to predict the orbits of the not so spent bullets which ended up in a very low lunar orbit. And building bullet proof walls to protect their above ground dwellings.

Anyone else remember that one?

@Folly

I remember reading that short story. Almost certainly from a library book checked out in the late 80s, early 90s. The best I can google about it though is it might be by Ben Bova.

Could be. I thought it was Heinlein, but found out it wasn’t. But it was based on science/ballistics like a RAH story. It was probably in some SciFi anthology I came across.