With Call of Duty: Ghosts now fully out into the hands of many FPS gamers worldwide, one thing that makes this title in the Call of Duty series stand out is the use of many operating environments for the gamer to shoot it out against digital enemies: land, sea, air, and space. Truly this is video game in which the game developers threw in everything, including the kitchen sink, and makes it one of the better experiences for an FPS game this year.

Now, there is the question nagging many players who may perhaps have forgotten their physics lessons (which also includes me) having played two space station missions in COD Ghosts, the prologue in which the Federation took control of the US military Space Station Odin and for the Ghosts to fight back and capture the Federation's military Space Station Loki (notice the use of Norse god's names in the space missions): do guns, whether airsoft or real steel, fire in space?

I have done some googling and indeed most of the answers confirm real steel guns will fire in space. You will question that in the vacuum, the propellant for the bullet to fly will need oxygen, and space is devoid oxygen. But the answer really is simple.

Real steel weapons depend of bullets with casings/shells for ammo. In this case the casing is sealed with gunpowder and its own oxidizer and thus, will not depend on an external source for oxygen. Once the gun is fired, the hammer will trigger an explosion that will propel the bullet and will even have a higher muzzle velocity and travel at a longer distance than being fired on earth. I cannot find any videos of a gun being fired in space, much less inside an oxygen-rich space station, and a video from Military.com is the closest simulation of firing a gun in space:

And in case you want to go for a physics lesson about guns, projectiles, ballistics in space, then perhaps this one will even help you understand further:

Now that we have set aside the question of real steel guns being able to work in space, then let's go to the next part of the question, about airsoft guns. The answer is both and a yes and a no. The answer lies on the power source of the airsoft gun and sorry, there's no video of airsoft gun being fired in space, whether real or simulated.

My take here is that, just like real steel guns, Bolt Actions, Gas blowbacks, CO2-powered and HPA-powered airsoft guns would work in space as they carry with them their own propellants to push BBs. These versions either through an air tank, spring, a gas magazine, or a CO2 capsule will be able to push the BBs out without the need for  an external source of air to help propel the BB through the inner barrel and out of the airsoft gun.

In the case of AEGs they won't work as the AEG gearbox will need external air to push the BB out of the airsoft gun. The piston will need to draw air from outside so it can compress it through the nozzle and pushed at a greater power to propel the BB for it travel through the inner barrel. With the absence of external air the gearbox will be useless in trying to fire off BBs.

Do you have a different and educated opinion? I would love to hear from you, especially if you disagree or have more supporting information that airsoft guns can also be fired in space.