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.
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.
allegedly was intended as a defensive weapon against in-space attacks by the US space program.
??? 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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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?
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.
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.