• Question: What would happen if a gun was shot in space aka what would happen to the bullet????

    Asked by Bennerf920 to RocketRich, Jenn, Floris, Elie, Col Op on 13 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Elie Allouis

      Elie Allouis answered on 13 Mar 2016:

      Right !..well, that’s an answer in few parts :-):
      1- the gun may not fire as the powder would need oxygen to burn
      2- If it did, then it depends on the speed of the bullet:
      Say you are at the ISS which has a speed of 7.66km/s. To escape Earth gravity, like missions to the Moon or Mars, you need about 11km/s.

      A ( very fast) bullet has a speed of up to 1km/s. This means that the very top speed of a bullet fired from the ISS towards deep space would be around 8.6km/s…hence not enough to break free of the Earth gravity. 🙂

      Let’s assume it did, then the bullet would continue its course uninterrupted, but would still be within the gravity pull of the sun and would probably orbit it after a while…

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