Guns in Space!

[RDinSacto]

For your enjoyment...

http://www.wesh.com/news/15298911/detail.html

[wceviper]

there goes the media again, thinking for other people & things they know nothing about.

[troyus]

Ha, you call that a space gun?

This is a space gun.... 23MM cannon. Just in case.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/spaceguns/

In the July 1998 issue of Spaceflight (the popular publication of the British Interplanetary Society), there's a article1 about the military version of the Soviet Salyut space station, which flew as Salyuts 3 and 5 between 1974 and 1977. (The name “Salyut” was applied to two entirely different space station programs, one military and the other civilian, which used completely different hardware built by different design bureaux.2 The hardware flown in the Salyut 3 and 5 missions was referred to as Almaz (Diamond) within the Soviet space program.)

Virtually no information was available about the military Salyuts until recently, when access was opened up to a full-scale training model at the Moscow Aviation Institute. Well, guess what—Salyut 3 had a machine gun. The station had a 23 mm rapid-fire cannon mounted on the outside, along the long axis of the station “for defence against US space-based inspectors/interceptors”. Combat engagements would have been leisurely by Star Wars or fighter jet standards, since the only way to aim the cannon was to point the entire station at the target, using its attitude gyros. A periscope connected to a visor on the main control panel allowed drawing a bead on the intended target.

[AngelDecoys]

Excellent. Considering the high stress astronauts may be under, a gun might come in handy if someone went nutso. I wonder what type of ammo would be used inside a space caspule. Nylon rounds, and low velocity? Can't imagine hollow points or jacketed rounds that may, (or may not) punch through the wall?

[gosparx]

Damn... I hoped they were talking about one of these...


As usual (and very predictably) the media never said WHY the gun was there.

The Solviets have always put a gun in their space craft. Not because they are trying to take over space, or because they were afraid of aliens, but because their reentry craft landed in the middle of now-where in Siberia... and there are bear and wolfs in Siberia!

The gun was there to protect the cosmonaut in case he came down off course, where given the size of the country, it could have taken days for him to be found by the recovery team. And it would have really sucked to have survived orbiting the earth, a fiery reentry, only to get eaten by a wolf.

Whether or not they still need a gun in space or upon reentry/recovery... whole different discussion. But I'm thinking if an astronaut goes postal while on the job... there are a lot more things to be worried about other then there being a gun on the craft! Like maybe the fact that the front door opens up directly to the Space!

[50 Freak]

Great...next news story:

"OLL IN SPACE"

[cartman]

Great...next news story:

"OLL IN SPACE"

For some reason I think they can have a pistol grip and detachable mag at the same time. Californias laws don't go that far no matter how much our politicians wish it did.

[Gunaria]

Here's something to think about, let's say a private citizen launches into outer space from Florida with an AW to fight zombie aliens. But when it's time to return from space but something goes wrong and then is forced to land in Cali. Now that American hero is a felon, thanks to CA AW laws.

[JagerTroop]

Here's something to think about, let's say a private citizen launches into outer space from Florida with an AW to fight zombie aliens. But when it's time to return from space but something goes wrong and then is forced to land in Cali. Now that American hero is a felon, thanks to CA AW laws.

Funny, I was just thinking of that same senario. As you re enter the atmosphere, you had better start disassembling, and removing the "evil" features.

Question: At what elevation are you no longer in California?

[Stormfeather]

For your enjoyment...

http://www.wesh.com/news/15298911/detail.html

Please post the link and the story, its kind of common curtosey so we dont have to go clicking everywhere.


__________________________________________________ ___

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station apparently have access to a gun.

Russian Cosmonauts carry a gun on their Soyuz space capsule, which is attached to the space station.

Survey: Should Space Station Have Gun?

Every spacecraft carries survival gear for crash landings, and the Russian Soyuz has a kit that includes the gun.

A photo of a space tourist using one version of the weapon is posted on his Web site.

But although the gun has been there for as long as the space station has been in orbit, its existence is kept quiet. NASA and Russian officials won't talk publicly about it.

Former NASA engineer Jim Oberg, who is an author and journalist, wrote about the gun on his Web site. He said the gun has no place in an environment where people are under such high stress.

"There have been cases of severe psychological strain on people in space, strain that they have taken out -- that their shipmates worried about the ultimate actions," Oberg said.

Experts said the idea of an astronaut losing control was unthinkable until one year ago, when Lisa Nowak shattered the myth.

Her own attorney said she was insane when arrested for hunting down another woman, and prosecutors said she was armed.

Nowak had flown in space just seven months earlier.

Oberg knows an astronaut bent on orbital manslaughter could simply throw any number of switches to do the job, but he said the crews would be safer if the gun was locked up or left on Earth.

The gun is located in a survival kit between some seats aboard the Soyuz spacecraft. All the crewmembers know about it, and U.S. astronauts who fly aboard the Soyuz are trained to use it.

[johnny_22]

be sure to vote

There is a survey on the page as well:

"Should Space Station Have Gun?"

68% say...YES!

[tygerpaw]

I'd like to see that spacecraft spinning about its axis when the machine gun went off! Pretty complicated physics there.

[savageevo]

They have that gun just incase ET grows teeth and becomes a zombie

[kap]

Nice picture of space tourist Anousheh Ansari shooting the gun in question.

http://www.firstafricaninspace.com/home/gallery/bolshoi/91.shtml

[WallySparx]

i sure hope they had more ear protection then sticking their fingers into their ears. looks like a pretty big caliber, anyone know what it is?