Re: Gun fire in space

Date: Wed Dec 30 00:40:05 1998
Posted By: Dwayne Vidrine
Area of science: Other
ID: 914961773.Ot

Message:
Steve Williams asked the question of whether a firearm would fire and function in outer space without the presence of oxygen gas. The answer is yes. Gun powder is a mixture of a fuel and and a oxidizer. Ammunition dose not require any oxygen from the environment to burn. As a matter of fact, ammunition made for military purposes is sealed for water proofing. There is no way that oxygen can enter the sealed cartridge. Fireworks, TNT, and the solid fuel mixture used in rockets will also work because of the same reason.

A machine gun or self-loading gun would operate just the same. These types of firearms are operated by the recoil of the shot or by venting some of the expanding gas in the barrel to a cylinder linked to an operating rod. Other guns will also will work in outer space. A spring operated BB gun and a CO2 pellet gun would work just fine in the absence of air. The only gun that would not work is a manual pump-up pellet gun. This gun must draw in air to be compressed in a cylinder to drive the pellet.

If a typical firearm were to be shot in outer space the performance would be much greater than one fired on earth. In the absence of air there would be no resistance to slow the bullet down. The bullet would strike the target at any range at the same speed it left the barrel. In the absence of gravity the bullet's path would be a straight line at any distance. There is also one more difference. In outer space the gun would not make any sound because there is no air to conduct the energy of the muzzle blast.

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