38. revolver to the moon? Way off topic!

Adventurer104

Adventurer104

Retired Texas Peace Officer
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We are depending on my memory, so that’s my disclaimer. I read several years ago and cannot remember the source that prior to the first moon flight involving a landing, (1969)., the NASA director (?)visited with the crew and among other things gave them a “.38 revolver..” to take with them “just in case” Sorry about the lack of details but hoping someone has REAL details. Can you imagine the worth of the revolver that went to the moon? I sure it remained in orbit with the Command Capsule. I hope you here with more knowledge can provide more details.

Adventurer 104 A retired Cop in Texas
 
Adventurer104 said:
We are depending on my memory, so that’s my disclaimer. I read several years ago and cannot remember the source that prior to the first moon flight involving a landing, (1969)., the NASA director (?)visited with the crew and among other things gave them a “.38 revolver..” to take with them “just in case” Sorry about the lack of details but hoping someone has REAL details. Can you imagine the worth of the revolver that went to the moon? I sure it remained in orbit with the Command Capsule. I hope you here with more knowledge can provide more details.

Adventurer 104 A retired Cop in Texas
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No gun was flown on US space vehicles
 
On the other hand a .38 bullet would go a lot further than a golf ball. ;D
 
I usually have a memory for the hilarious but this one is new to me. My guess is that if there's an element of truth to it, it was possibly a joke between the parties involved and didn't lead to a serious plan for carrying a weapon to the moon.
 
Russian spacecraft have carried survival guns, not against aliens but in case the capsule returns to Earth in the middle of a Siberian forest inhabited by bears and/or wolves.
 
Tony Williams said:
Russian spacecraft have carried survival guns, not against aliens but in case the capsule returns to Earth in the middle of a Siberian forest inhabited by bears and/or wolves.
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Or for getting a meal out of a moose or goose, while waiting to be rescued?

My physics skills are a bit rusty. How much velocity do you need to escape moon's gravity?
 
Tony Williams said:
Russian spacecraft have carried survival guns, not against aliens but in case the capsule returns to Earth in the middle of a Siberian forest inhabited by bears and/or wolves.
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they had to and still have TP-82 pistol on board !
if they miss the landing area and end-up in Siberia (what happened), So they need protection against wolves and big bears !
800px-TP-82.jpg


on the "other hand" the Gemini crew had big M-1 survival machete onboard...
Dsc_8519-482x1024.jpg


what remembers me that the third Machete movie is called "Machete kills again...in Space!"
 
Well it was the 60's... flat tops and big cigars crowd probably went through a thought process: "If them darn Ruskies got a gun on their spaceships we darn sure gonna have one on ours! And a big knife too!" ;D
 
poky said:
I do know of a US airforce survival gun and there was talk back then to give have them along on space mission but I think it was a .22
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The M4 Survival rifle?

If so, it was in .22 Hornet, which is a much more powerful round than your average .22LR.

Quite a nifty thing.
I have the engineering/fabrication blueprints somewhere on my computer.
 
Michel Van said:
they had to and still have TP-82 pistol on board !
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If I remember correctly (I'll have to check the source), the TP-82 was at some point replaced by the Makarov PM pistol, due to the unavailability of the special ammunition types for the TP-82.

That aside, I am still rooting for Tula Arsenal, Baikal or someone to produce a modern, fully functioning replica, including (of course) the shoulder stock machete. 'Cause I want one :)


Edit 221900BAUG13: I checked my library. According to the book "Russische Schusswaffen"("Russian Firearms") by Ilya Shaydurov, ISBN 978-3-613-03187-6, Russian cosmonauts have been armed with the standard Makarov pistol (9x18mm) rather than the TP-82 SONAZ since 2007, as Tula Arsenal stopped producing the ammunition for the TP-82.

Regards & all,

Thomas L. Nielsen
Luxembourg
 
Couldn't a gun be used as a thruster ?
Would make a good scene, I think. The astronaut, who got lost from his spaceship, tumbling away through
space, takes out his gun and tries to return. Dramatic minutes until we know, if those 6 bullets are enough,
especially the fears and doubts, clearly seen through the helmet visor, before he fires the last shot ... ;)
 
Jemiba said:
Couldn't a gun be used as a thruster ?
Would make a good scene, I think.
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Been done. "Moontrap" starring Alfred Bester his own self, Walter Koenig. At 1:19:00 or so, uses an Uzi as a thruster.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVZjzv1uDlg

And of course, Yosemite Sam was there decades earlier...
 
In the anime "Cowboy Bebop", one character has to make a pretty rapid suitless transfer and uses his handgun as a thruster. IIRC they actually show him hunching and trying to keep it in line with his CoG, too, but Bebop is semi-hard sci-fi (and awesome), so that's not surprising.


RP1
 
kaiserbill said:
poky said:
I do know of a US airforce survival gun and there was talk back then to give have them along on space mission but I think it was a .22
Click to expand...

The M4 Survival rifle?

If so, it was in .22 Hornet, which is a much more powerful round than your average .22LR.

Quite a nifty thing.
I have the engineering/fabrication blueprints somewhere on my computer.
Click to expand...

Probably this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-7
 
War Is Boring writes about the TP-82 shotgun.

Soviet Cosmonauts Carried a Shotgun Into Space

The TP-82 was for shooting bears with both barrels


by JAMES SIMPSON

To this day, the Russian Federal Space Agency refuses to talk about the weapon—though it’s an open secret. Astronauts heading to the International Space Station have trained with it, and some have even talked about it.

And in case there’s any doubt about its existence, there’s one on display in a Russian museum.

It’s the TP-82 survival pistol. There was a time when Russian cosmonauts regularly traveled to space with the gun in tow. But calling it a pistol is slightly misleading—the TP-82 more like a small shotgun.

The Soviet Union included the weapon in Granat-6 survival kits stashed inside Soyuz capsules between 1982 and 2006. The odd weapons also found their way into military aircraft survival kits.

Having a gun inside a thin-walled spacecraft filled with oxygen sounds crazy, but the Soviets had their reasons. Much of Russia is desolate wilderness. A single mishap during descent could strand cosmonauts in the middle of nowhere.
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More at the link.
 

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