Shotguns!
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Siamois — 17 years ago(March 30, 2009 10:37 AM)
"I've only seen parts of this movie ages ago. IIRC there is one scene in which a shotgun is used during EVA. This would not be possible as shotguns require oxygen to function."
They WOULD function.
But in reality, the knockback would be overwhelming for the user. -
Bart_Decaux — 18 years ago(April 24, 2007 02:43 PM)
Yeah, shotguns do work in a vaccum alright. However, in zero grav there'd be a pretty pokey recoil, I should think.
I also think there'll be some sort of basic ballistic weapon around for a very long time. They already have been. Let's face it, we still sometimes use pointy bits of metal and they've been a very effective anti-personnel weapon since we first found metal; before that it was stone and before that, wood. So we know pointy works; and we sure know that firearms work even better.
In fact, to pick up on someone else's post, the relatively short range from a shotgun or rifle might be a great asset in a confined space; a concentrated beam-effect weapon would theoretically fire forever if the target was missed. That could be a problem, especially if something important happened to get in the way- you could fire at someone, miss, and the beam would go sailing on and hit some life-support equipment. -
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Bart_Decaux — 18 years ago(November 26, 2007 04:34 PM)
Okay, let me clarify: a beam weapon would fire forever until it encountered something sufficient to interact with which would absorb its energy.
Given that certain energy sources in the universe have been travelling for many, many millions of years without dissipating to any appreciable degree, I think we can assume that a beam weapon's output could be rattling around in the cosmos for a long enough time for it to be largely irrelevant to whatever it was we were originally aiming for and why we did so.
Scientifically, that's not quite "forever", true, but that's a bit of a nitpick in this context, surely?
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marsodyssey2010 — 18 years ago(November 29, 2007 11:11 AM)
You're thinking of radiated energy. A beam would loose focus with distance and would eventually disperse to the point of nothingness. You would have a 10nm laser at the focusing lens, but by the time that it had traveled any appreciable distance it would be much wider and much weaker.
Shine a flashlight at a near wall and a far wall and you will see that the image on the far wall will be larger and darker. It's the same principle even with lasers.
English Language Anime: Dub it, don't pervert it. -
Bart_Decaux — 18 years ago(December 07, 2007 02:24 PM)
I'll bow to your knowledge on this one; I'm afraid I'm something of an amateur scientist and have to admit I don't know about the subtleties between the different forms of energy. I wasn't aware that lasers can lose focus too.
That said, lasers can and do work effectively over- at least to us- rather large distances, surely? I know that laser weapons with enough power to take out any threats militarily aren't practical yet, but let's imagine a high-tech, compact yet powerful hypothetical future one capable of blasting a hole in a person. Even if such a weapon were to exist, wouldn't it still be more dangerous to fire one of these in the relatively closed surroundings of the colony than a shotgun which loses its effective range much more quickly?