Jump to content
SASS Wire Forum

Guns of NASA


Rye Miles #13621

Recommended Posts

I am impressed. I went to google translate some terms. One such term was maraging  (radical heat treatment) as referring to steel. The process can produce steel with 120,000 ft pounds of strength.  Thats what they use for the barrel and receiver of the gun. The initial ignition impulse is provided by up to 2.6 pounds of 4831. projectile travels at 23,000+ ffps 

 

 

 

Not suitable for steel targets!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Noz said:

I am impressed. I went to google translate some terms. One such term was maraging  (radical heat treatment) as referring to steel. The process can produce steel with 120,000 ft pounds of strength.  Thats what they use for the barrel and receiver of the gun. The initial ignition impulse is provided by up to 2.6 pounds of 4831. projectile travels at 23,000+ ffps 

 

 

 

Not suitable for steel targets!

 

 

  ........................................................... dang !!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fascinating, Captain!  In point of fact, a piece of space debris or micrometeoroid as tiny as a grain of sand, travelling in an orbit opposite to an orbiting satellite or astronaut would have an impact velocity of around 35,000 mph or 50,000 ft/sec!  (This depends on the altitude and thus the orbital velocities.)  The result would produce damage of an explosive nature.  

 

This reminds me of a test project I was involved with back in 1972, at a major aerospace company.  There was a problem with either idiots or sabatuers shooting at transportation containers holding high-value military cargoes on highways and/or trains travelling crosscountry.  The project was to determine if there were materials that could be used as armor without incurring a large weight penalty.  Some bright soul decided, for threat levels, that the "most likely" threat was a .30 cal. hunting (JSP) round at 100 yards.  "The threat from armor-piercing ammunition is not considered because none is available in commercial trade."  When I saw this, I went to the program manager and asked how many rounds of M2AP he would have me purchase at the local Army Surplus store downtown! :rolleyes:  They actually did give me a purchase order for 100 rounds or so, which was to be tested on armor in addition to the "hunting" ammo.  The problem was this major aerospace firm only had a 100-inch range for recreational purposes for its employees, so to approximate the impact velocities of 100 yds, the ammo would have to be downloaded to 100 yd. velocities.  This included the AP bullets!  Only problem was, the company didn't have a chronograph to record velocities, nor anyone who could download the ammo!  As it happened, I had purchased one of the Oehler M11 chronos that used the metallic traces on paper targets that the bullets broke to start and stop the timer, 2 targets for each shot!  So, I wound up letting them use my chronograph and reloaded the ammo to 100 yd velocities!  We tested various combinations of composite armor, homogeneous hardened steels and aluminum of various thicknesses.  It was interesting, especially the difference in penetration of pointed versus roundnose jacketed softpoint bullets.  The roundnose would actually penetrate part way through and would stick in the armor, whereas the pointed slugs would blowup on the front side, sometimes causing spalling on the backside, which would have caused damage to whatever the cargo might be!  

 

I don't know what they decided on as I was on loan to the program, and once the tests were finished I went back to my parent program, not associated with the tests.  (One "solution" to the problem was to move/remove any lettering/decorations from the outside of the containers that could be potentially be attractive to a shooter, such as the letters "C", "O" or military roundels to somewhere that, if hit, wouldn't endanger the cargo.  :P  Don't know what the customers are doing today about the problem, if it still exists.

 

That test gun is very interesting, although I don't think I could make a holster for it, nor a sling!  :rolleyes: :P

 

Stay well and safe, Pards!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.