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.

    • @WhoRoger@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Why wouldn’t it?

      Ed: the only thing that might not work is gunpowder in vacuum due to lack of oxygen, but gunpowder has oxidiser included, so yes it would.

      • janus2
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        1611 months ago

        I had to look up whether gunpowder requires oxygen to burn (it doesn’t)

        • Sabre363
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          1811 months ago

          Gunpowder does actually require oxygen to burn, it just happens to bring its own oxygen with it.

          • janus2
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            111 months ago

            That’s what I assumed, but why ass-ume when I live in the information age 😁

        • @expatriado@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          if it needed oxygen from the air it would have to breathe, the explosion happens inside the barrel before it mixes with the atmosphere

      • @CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world
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        611 months ago

        Heat dissipation is an issue since there’s no air around to cool the barrel, although for this three shot weapon (two shotgun one rifle) it wouldn’t be a problem. This gun is mostly to fend off bears when you land in Siberia.

    • NaibofTabr
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      811 months ago

      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.

      • AlwaysNowNeverNotMe
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        211 months ago

        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.

      • kbity
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        411 months ago

        I’d kind of hope everyone would know better than that after the disastrous Apollo I fire.