US Space Force celebrates return of 1st Guardian to launch to space (photos)

[Admin]

U.S. Space Force Col. Nick Hague is back on Earth after living on the International Space Station for the last five-plus months.

US Space Force celebrates return of 1st Guardian to launch to space (photos) : Read more

 

[Classical Motion]

I want to know what rifle recoil is like.

 

[COLGeek]

I want to know what rifle recoil is like.

In space? In what conditions?

 

[Unclear Engineer]

I want to know what rifle recoil is like.

It would feel about the same as experienced on Earth - you body rapidly absorbs the amount of momentum equal to that of the bullet and the gas that exits the muzzle.

Except, if you are not backed up by a bulkhead or something else fixed solidly to the station, it will get all of you moving in the opposite direction from the bullet. You would also start to spin, unless you could make sure the line of the gun barrel extended through your own center of mass.

To calculate how much momentum you would get, you need to figure in the thrust from the gas, which actually leaves the gun much faster than the bullet, once the bullet "plug" is out of the barrel. For very high powered rifles, that addition exceeds the thrust from the bullet alone.

 

[Classical Motion]

I would like to experience the recoil without my weight, just my mass. I suspect it’s much different.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

You could get a reasonable approximation of it by hanging in a harness with your feet off the ground when you fire.

Paratroopers can do that. But, you need a safe place to try it, so that bullets don't go anywhere they can cause trouble, because it is hard to aim well when your body is not braced for the recoil. Adjusting the sights on a gun to hit the point of aim is pretty dependent on how you are bracing yourself for the shot. It's that rotational effect I mentioned in the previous post.

Of course, hanging from a harness, from a fixed tower or a parachute, involves more forces than doing it in free fall or orbit, but you get the idea what the gunshot forces are tending to do. It is just that gravity will counteract it pretty quickly if you are subject to it.

Unless you can pay Elon to put you in orbit and convince him to let you open the hatch to a Dragon capsule and then fire a gun into space, you are going to just have to think your way through it instead of doing the experiment yourself.

 

[Classical Motion]

Up in a harness the recoil would swing me. But maybe in space the recoil would spin me.

 

[COLGeek]

Up in a harness the recoil would swing me. But maybe in space the recoil would spin me.

Maybe. Depends on your posture and how braced or not. The size of the round would also have tremendous bearing on the outcome (trying not to complicate all of this).

The real question, other than curiosity, is why test at all?

P.S. I have been shot. It is highly overrated. I do not recommend it. 'Tis not a game.

 

[Classical Motion]

Space Troopers.

 

[COLGeek]

Space Troopers.

Fighting who and why?

 

[Unclear Engineer]

COLGeek, sorry to hear you were on the receiving end of a bullet transfer trajectory.

As you probably experienced, along with Dimorphos, the effects are related more to the energy transfer than just the momentum transfer. Which makes sense, considering that the shooter always absorbs more momentum effect than the target, due to the gas momentum being dissipated before it gets to the target. That is why an elephant hunter can kill an elephant without getting killed too by the "equal but opposite momentum effects" of recoil.

Regarding the discussion here heading towards the "cowboys in space" motif, I think that is totally unrealistic. Humans in space need controlled pressure/temperature environments, either in space stations or pressure suits. A bullet puncturing the pressure barrier is likely to be fatal to humans - no such thing as "just a flesh wound" for a human whose life depends on the integrity of a space suit. And, holes in a space station would be similarly fatal.

So, it we ever do have projectile-firing combatants in space, I assume they will be robots. Those would be much harder to "kill".