wongarsu | Hacker News

Comment by wongarsu | original | Why did some Apollo missions carry a grenade launcher?

[−]wongarsu · 2026-11-15 Sun 09:57 UTC · link

Now I'm wondering how far a regular military grenade launcher could lauch grenades on the moon

[−]moritonal · 2026-11-15 Sun 10:05 UTC · link

About six times further with zero drag. So 3.6Km, or from Buckingham Palace to St Paul's Cathedral.

[−]johannes1234321 · 2026-11-15 Sun 10:29 UTC · link

Since there is no atmosphere even a bit further.

[−]LoganDark · 2026-11-15 Sun 10:57 UTC · link

That's already what zero drag meant

[−]yokoprime · 2026-11-15 Sun 13:04 UTC · link

We could also say it's about a 15 minute run for a healthy person

[−]dmos62 · 2026-11-15 Sun 15:13 UTC · link

Few people run at 13 km/h. Your qualification regarding health is doing a lot of work here.

[−]NooneAtAll5 · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:01 UTC · link

> Few people run at 13 km/h.

on Earth or on the Moon tho?

[−]iterance · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:22 UTC · link

Have you ever tried to run on the moon? Bloody difficult.

[−]znpy · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:34 UTC · link

My (wildly uneducated) guess is that on the moon the real issue is not much acceleration but rather deceleration.

[−]tetha · 2026-11-15 Sun 13:10 UTC · link

And the follow-up question: Could it put one into a moon orbit if done right?

[−]mattmaroon · 2026-11-15 Sun 13:37 UTC · link

There are a few guns that exist that could achieve the necessary velocity (just shy of 4,000 mph) but they’re not handheld. But yes, it would be possible for the right gun to fire a bullet that went around the moon and hit you in the back of the head.

[−]m4rtink · 2026-11-15 Sun 18:41 UTC · link

Lunar gravity field is very uneven - that one orbit might be enough for it slighly change where the bullet shows up again.