Feasibility of Spaceship Artillery

Could something similar to a naval battleship main gun work in the vacuum of space?

Let me set the stage: A turret of 2-3 large caliber guns, loaded with an explosive shell. Artificial gravity keeps the round and the powder bags seated properly, and the loading chamber is isolated from the inner atmosphere of the ship to prevent loss of atmosphere during firing. The level of technology in this setting is very advanced, an approximation would be Star Trek/Star Wars levels, where there are interstellar starships with shields and nice thick hulls, and a form of FTL travel utilizing wormholes.

Now to the specific questions:

What would need to happen for the gun to fire the projectile? Would there need to be atmosphere around the shell? Without oxygen would the firing generate the gasses needed to push the projectile out?

Would an explosive round, like a conventional naval weapon, have a considerable effect in space? Would there be an explosion? What could be done to improve the effectiveness of such a round?

My goal is to have a navy that is slowly adopting more...advanced...weaponry, like railguns, but has a strong love of their old projectile weaponry and is wont to give them up. I'm just not sure how feasible that is in the real world, and how much handwavetonium I'm going to have to add to the guns to make it feasible.

posted almost 8 years ago

Marshall Tigerus‭

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