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I can’t be the only one who was disappointed to find out that these weren’t designed for Cold War space combat with American astronauts.
by alexhutcheson 7y ago
I can’t be the only one who was disappointed to find out that these weren’t designed for Cold War space combat with American astronauts.
- me_me_me 7y agoSee Also: Soviet laser pistol
- the_af 7y agoThe talk section of Wikipedia speculates it might be a hoax. There seems to be a single reference to that pistol (and every other reference points back to that one). My bet is that the laser pistol never existed.
- me_me_me 7y agohttps://media.moddb.com/images/groups/1/2/1312/sovietlaserpistolah9.jpg https://media.moddb.com/images/groups/1/2/1312/sovietlaserpi... Do click links in the articles. Now whether it worked or not is up to the debate (most likely not).
- the_af 7y agoThe link doesn't work for me. Another commenter mentioned that the laser pistol is shown in a Russian military museum, which is evidence enough for me. Still looks goofy, though.
- cbnotfromthere 7y ago"the laser pistol is shown in a Russian military museum, which is evidence enough for me" You mean the same museum showing that USSR was never an ally of Nazi Germany?
- chrisseaton 7y agoIt does say 'survival' in the title. It never claimed they were combat pistols.
- ceejayoz 7y agoI'm sure there were contingency plans to use it (and the prior 9mm mentioned) during missions like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo%E2%80%93Soyuz_Test_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo%E2%80%93Soyuz_Test_Proj... if war broke out on Earth.
- aswanson 7y agoI was hoping they were in case they encountered hostile alien life forms in orbit.
- st_goliath 7y agoThe Salyut 3 space station had an aircraft gun mounted for defense in orbit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_3#On-board_gun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_3#On-board_gun
- kitd 7y agoInteresting. Would something like that have had an effect on the velocity of the spacecraft?
- oliveshell 7y agoAbsolutely! But nothing that couldn’t be corrected with station-keeping thrusters.
- rhinoceraptor 7y agoIf my math is right, you'd need to fire the gun 60 times to change the velocity by one meter per second.
- ineedasername 7y agoWell, US Space Command, and possible Space Force, is coming soon, so maybe you'll get your wish, just a generation or so late.
- Rebelgecko 7y agoUS Space Command was around for most of the time that this gun was used, it didn't go away until after 9/11