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Guns on spaceships

HMS Sophia said:
Can people stop picking on me for making dumb jokes plsthanks.
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This is Sufficient Velocity, we take our dumb stuff seriously!!:anger:

I was actually interested though, since even with neutron activation, it could be a viable means of capturing a valuable space vessel, assuming the radioactivity was limited to presumably more replaceable structural elements, with more valuable engines etc being salvageable.
 
Ironanvil1 said:
This is Sufficient Velocity, we take our dumb stuff seriously!!:anger:

I was actually interested though, since even with neutron activation, it could be a viable means of capturing a valuable space vessel, assuming the radioactivity was limited to presumably more replaceable structural elements, with more valuable engines etc being salvageable.
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K, well...
Yes, it would be a problem. The ships would become mildly radioactive, because the hull would release huge gamma ray bursts when hit by a nuetron bomb. But it would likely be limited to the hull because of activation along the surface.
Crew should be nice and fucked though.
 
I just finished reading a book where they faced a problem with this (And of course I can't remember the name, and of course it was from the library so I cant check the name -_-) Granted it was set on the moon, but it had the same concept. How do you make weapons that are safe to use indoors where missing your target could hit a wall or window and depressurize an entire hab filled with thousands of workers?

Answer? You don't. They started using blades, which is actually pretty badass. I mean, space knights?

Of course, that doesn't really answer the question. :/
 
Shotguns firing a low velocity ceramic slug might be an idea. If it hits something squishy it shatters and does all sorts of horrible things to it, but if the slug hits bulkheads it shatters while doing basically zero damage.
 
Shadows said:
Shotguns firing a low velocity ceramic slug might be an idea. If it hits something squishy it shatters and does all sorts of horrible things to it, but if the slug hits bulkheads it shatters while doing basically zero damage.
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Trouble with that is if people wear spacesuits or EVA suits, low-velocity ceramic slugs are unlikely to work too well.

Not to mention that electronics and space plumbing in enclosed spaces is finicky as all hell. One set of exploded ceramic splinters could still lead o a lot of damage. Not "punch through the bulkhead" bad, but "oh shit, I just shot the life support system".
 
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I can actually see some kind of treaty between major space powers against high penetration weapons indoors, or boarding in general; you are only allowed to surrender or run away.
 
You'd nuts to be attacking a spaceship without wearing a spacesuit so the attacker is less concerned about atmosphere than the defender. If atmosphere is a rare resource than you just stick a vacuum pump onto the boarding lock and and steal as much atmosphere as you can from the enemy ship as your troops procede to advance in a vacuum. It's a bit more dangerous without atmosphere but a decent self sealing space suit reduces the risk and finding something that will penetrate body armour but not the hull is very hard.
 
We have specialty ammunition for these kind of scenarios when boarding oil tankers and LPG carriers. Glasser safety slugs aren't the only frangible rounds being used in the world.
 
FlatlineAskari said:
Both concepts have been thrown around in the context of law enforcement. The technical challenges might be more tractable if the device doesn't have to be less-lethal, but if it'll put a (bolus of seminewtonian gel/entangling net/spread of electrified filaments/whatever) through the bulkhead behind the target, we return to the issue of it making the spacecraft it's used in a terminally unhealthy place to hang around. :V
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It occurs to me that in a low or zero g environment, some goo or net gun might be quite a bit easier to make effective. And inside a closed-in area like a spaceship the longer theoretical range of a conventional gun would be irrelevant.
 
Well, obviously you'd want a weapon that you'd have oodles of fine control over—some sort of bladed weapon, perhaps?— and is capable of cutting through, say, spacesuits or other armor and finally, one that can be retracted or turned off, to help preserve space.

In short?

WE LIGHTSABERS NOW.
 
Police on space stations and orbital habs should have mainly non lethal weapons. And strict ban on guns.

Military and swat type teams for dealing with armed threats would use regular guns. And wear space suits.
 
Prince Charon said:
I'm not sure I've heard of it. The name makes me think of an arc in Marvel Comics.
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It's a tabletop game set in the WH40K universe, which I think is out of print now but is mainly notable for being the first property GW allowed to be turned into a game, way back in the DOS era. A lot of people first got into 40K from playing it.
 
To the people mentioning swords, axes and general melee weapons: I think you're mostly right, at least in that that will be how it's done at first. However, I don't think we'll go back to knightly swords and viking axes, those things generally work best in not quite as cramped situations as those of your stereotypical space ship. What you will get is sabers , cutlasses and hangers (especially cutlasses and hangers. Amusing how those were first introduced to deal with combat in cramped spaces, ships to be precise). Possibly some kind of shotgun.

Bringing a gun into the fight is telling the enemy they might as well surrender, because you will not be leaving them with a useable ship.
 
FlyingScanian said:
To the people mentioning swords, axes and general melee weapons: I think you're mostly right, at least in that that will be how it's done at first. However, I don't think we'll go back to knightly swords and viking axes, those things generally work best in not quite as cramped situations as those of your stereotypical space ship. What you will get is sabers , cutlasses and hangers (especially cutlasses and hangers. Amusing how those were first introduced to deal with combat in cramped spaces, ships to be precise).
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In a personal armour environment, I'd think something along the lines of a weaponised Halligan Bar might be more likely, as a compact, handy implement for variously prizing and picking, particularly since any ship assault is going to include an element of forcible entry.
 
Ironanvil1 said:
In a personal armour environment, I'd think something along the lines of a weaponised Halligan Bar might be more likely, as a compact, handy implement for variously prizing and picking, particularly since any ship assault is going to include an element of forcible entry.
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In an environment where personal armour probably comes within spitting difference of the coverage, if perhaps not the resilience, of Mediaeval harness, why not go the whole hog? Perhaps with a short poleaxe-type weapon, except with a crowbar's forked head where the queue would be.

Think something like this, for length. No longer than 3 feet from dagger tip to crowbar head.

Bludgeon, crush, cut, stab, pry.

Can be applied to an uncooperative hatch with just as much facility as that uncooperative bloke round the corner.
 
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