History Question: Apollo Astronauts packing?

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I read some time ago that the Apollo astronauts (do not know if it was just the first mission or any subsequent missions) went to the moon with firearms...just in case. While I have seen an astronaut survival knife (resembled a short machete with a clip point), I have never heard of or seen anything in regard to the Apollo (or other space programs) bringing firearms with on missions. Can anyone verify that this statement is true, and if so, what firearms were taken on the Apollo (or other) mission(s)?
By the way, the book I read this statement in is Armed and Dangerous: A Writer's Guide to Weapons. author is Michael Newton and was published in 1990 by Writers Digest Books as part of their Howdunnit series.
 
The official NASA statement was: No astronauts carried firearms because weight was a critical factor.
Did they or didn't they carry? Who knows. I always did wonder though what a 230 gr .45 ACP would do to a lunar rock. Or even better, what would a .44 mag be like to fire in a reduced gravity situation on the lunar surface.
"One small step, one large recoil"

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CCW for Ohio action site.
http://www.ofcc.net
 
Doesn't gunpowder need oxygen to ignite and burn? Either they have special cartridges with solid oxygen already there or he'd have to fire it in a ziploc freezer bag ... heh heh.
 
Smokeless powder contains its own oxygen. It should burn just fine in space, although exposure to the extreme cold might cause problems.
 
I have heard that there is oxygen with the chemical composition of gunpowder that allows it to ignite. Firing the glock 17 underwater is essentially the same thing- I think? Anyone?

Olazul
 
Olazul..

Yep, just like underwater...can be done.

There was a neat SF story written years ago (forget the author)during the Cold War:
The jist was a governmental guy(bean counter) goes to the moon colony to see why things aren't going as expected. He gets there and its really Spartan (considering all the construction materials always sent) and little to no progress on the projects...he is amazed at the cooperation tho between the US and USSR colonies.
He is instructed to put on his space suit, he does and then everyone hits the dirt. Explosive decompression. In a few minutes workers appear to start patching up the place. Turns out in the early days of colonization, there was a skirmish firefight between US and USSR.....all the bullets that missed have orbited (opposing orbits) and twice per day all those bullets orbit around and shred the place.

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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
 
in 1968... a NASA article stated that while the astronauts themselves did not pack... there was a pistol in thier survival packs. the survival kit(s) contained gyro-jet pistols..... but they never went to the moon with them.... it was just in the planning for it... I believe that you guys are right,... the weight was one of the factors as to why they never packed..... the Knife (I own one) was a multipurpose knife and fit between the suit and the support system pack they wore when out walking. If you happen to get to the space museum in Kansas, you can see the sheath for the knife as a slit on the right side of the support pack (inside, toward the suit, just above the waist)) The displays in Houston and Florida might show that also...
 
A short course on explosives here. For a smokeless powder or explosive to be made all you do is have something flamable and attach an oxydizer to it that will release the stored oxygen under certain conditions. One of the best and most stable of these components are nitrates, NO3 (the 3 should be a subscript). Conventional explosives like tri-nitro-toluene, nitroglycerine, and nitrocellulose (gun cotton) all contain nitrates to carry their own oxygen to support combustion. Nitroglycerine is nitrated glycerol, nitrocellulose used in smokeless powder is nitrated cellulose. Ammonium nitrate fertilizer as used in the OKC bombing is an oxydizer, the fuel use was diesel. The diesel burns and the oxydizer allows it to burn rapidly or 'explode'. An example of an unstable oxydizer is potassium perchlorate, K CL O4. If you spill some of this powder on your jeans, and try to brush it off, the friction is enough to free the oxygen and cause your pants to burst into flames.
 
I would think that even if carrying a firearm was considered, it wasn't considered very long. The consequences of an AD or a ricochet in space or on the moon would be very undesirable, to say the least. However, I have heard that the astronauts and cosmonauts were given the choice of carrying a suicide pill and most of them declined. Does anyone know if this fact or fiction?

DC - Arthur C. Clarke wrote several short stories on the use of firearms and other objects for propulsion in an emergency. I remember one was "A Fall of Moondust", where the hero used his pistol to get back to his ship when he had wandered too far away. But, I may have this mixed up with another story, it's been a few years since I read it.

[This message has been edited by Mal H (edited October 14, 1999).]
 
Mal-- these guys sat on top of a 10-story controlled bomb; the AD/ricochet issue is kinda tiny, don'tcha think? ;)

I imagine the weight issue was one reason they didn't carry, and the other would be... what would they should in an environment w/no atmosphere? Each other? This would be something to attempt to minimize. Best just to keep 'em busy and let 'em brave it out like the true pioneers they were.

(Not that I'm for disarming astronauts!)
 
I would think that it would be very difficult to handle any type of firearm with the bulky gloves that were used while wearing a spacesuit. Would it even be possible to get your finger inside the triggerguard?
 
LP - I know you were joking, but I don't think an AD or ricochet wouldn't be a minor issue when you think about it. A small hole in your spacecraft/spacesuit could be classified as "Houston we have a big problem".

Remember - death is just nature's way of telling us to take it easy. :)

[This message has been edited by Mal H (edited October 14, 1999).]
 
Joe Blacke...... I remember the picture of the Gyro-jet as having no trigger guard.....the few I have seen up close have guards that come off real easy.......
 
Astronaut Taylor had a 45 auto in HIS survival pack when he landed on the planet of the apes . ;)

I recall that Izmash or Kalishnikov had created a survival gun for Russian Cosmonauts whic had 3 barrels that rotated. One fired a flare, one a rifle round, and one a shotgun shell.

The idea was they could shoot birds to eat and the rifle round was for protection against "wild animals", and the flare for signalling.

I have NOT seen a pic of this weapon.

Sounds Kinda cool huh?

Dr.Rob
 
On the suicide pill story, I believe NASA has always denied that any were carried, BUT, the medical pack contained a wide range of pills that were numbered and not labelled. When one of the Apollo 13 astronauts fell ill from a chest infection during their abortive mission to the moon, he was instructed to take pill 7 in conjunction with pill 4 etc etc. It is widely believed that one of the pill sequences would result in death for the unlucky recipient, not the time for bad radio reception I guess,

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Mike H
 
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