The Soviet laser pistol was a
prototype handgun-shaped
energy weapon designed for use by
cosmonaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
s in a low or zero-gravity environment that renders conventional
firearms ineffective. The weapon was
magazine fed and used pyrotechnic
flashbulb technology to project its beam.
Another type of the gun was a six-shot laser revolver.
History and design
With the development of the Space Shuttle, the Soviets began to worry that the US would be able to snatch satellites from orbit and carry them back to Earth. This fear prompted the development of the laser gun.
The weapons were designed to either disable
optical sensors on enemy spacecraft or to
flash-blind enemy astronauts when engaged in an orbital combat aboard or out of spacecraft. The last scenario was considered implausible, however, and the gun had no deadly force.
Its energy output was sufficient to inflict damage on optical devices and cause eye injuries.
Because of the environment of its intended use, the gun had to be differently engineered than other hand held weapons:
To meet all the requirements, Soviet engineers designed a lamp filled with oxygen and containing metallic foil or powder. Instead of magnesium, which was traditionally used in strobe lights, the laser would be “fueled” by zirconium, which produced three times more light energy. Some metallic salt additives were used to match the wavelength of the flash with the range of the laser system. An yttrium aluminum garnet crystal initially served as a “medium” where the infrared laser beam would be generated after each flash.
As
Perestroika began and spurred the "
new political thinking
New political thinking (or simply new thinking) was the doctrine put forth by Mikhail Gorbachev as part of his reforms of the Soviet Union. Its major elements were ideologization of international politics, abandoning the concept of class struggle, ...
" disarmament doctrine, the project was terminated.
See also
*
TP-82 Cosmonaut survival pistol
The TP-82 (russian: ТП-82) was a triple-barrelled Soviet combination pistol carried by cosmonauts on space missions. It was intended as a survival aid to be used after landings and before recovery in the Siberian wilderness.
Features
The pi ...
References
External images
media.moddb.com image
media.moddb.com imagejollyroger666.narod.ru image
Crewed space program of the Soviet Union
Military lasers
Pistols of the Soviet Union
Soviet inventions
Abandoned military projects of the Soviet Union
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