Hacker News Reader

Comment by ch_123 | Hacker News Reader

> In 2007,[2] the media reported that the remaining ammunition for the TP-82 had become unusable and that a regular semi-automatic pistol would be used on future missions.

Assuming the gun fires 28 gauge shotgun shells and standard AK74 ammunition, I can't see why the original ammunition failing would be a problem. Is there something I am missing here?

View on HN

> Is there something I am missing here?

They weren't standard AK74 rounds. They were a special soft point version (5.45x39 SN-P) that were only used in these survival guns.

Couldn't someone just hand-load a different bullet into the same base cartridge? In the worst case scenario, swap out the barrel for one that can handle the standard rounds?

...or just start handing out newer, lighter automatic pistols, and save yourself some flight weight and an occasional maintenance headache.

They were already using lighter weight Makarov pistols before the TP-82, and switched to the combo gun after some cosmonauts spent the night in the Siberian wilderness and thought a small semi-auto pistol wasn't enough. But, yeah, running out of qualified ammo likely just supplied the impetus to re-evaluate the necessity of the TP-82.

More interesting is the laser pistol the USSR attempted to design for cosmonauts to carry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_laser_pistol

But the laser gun was for blinding satellite cameras, not fending off Siberian bears.

True, but still fun, and still pretty much useless for either job.

Guessing they need ammo which has been cleared for spaceflight, as you want the ammo go up, potentially stay there for extensive amounts of time, come back down, and still be in working order.

And I guess also not go off if it is heated or shaked too much on its way to space!

Since it's stored very close to the astronauts that shouldn't be a problem. Or rather you'd have a different set of problems if your astronaut compartment was hot and shaky enough to let ammunition go off.

Even if it does go off, as long as the rounds are not chambered it's really not that big of a deal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SlOXowwC4c

You don't want gunpowder burning in an oxygen rich environment, regardless of how the bullets are stored.

Good luck using a regular semi-automatic pistol as a machete!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com