Floating ideas for an airlock near the Moon

Assembly of a new habitable structure near the moon, known as the Gateway, is scheduled to begin in 2023. The international project will allow humans to explore farther than ever before and it brings new opportunities for ...

NASA image: DSCOVR Satellite Arrives in Florida for Launch

The truck delivering NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft, or DSCOVR, enclosed in a protective shipping container, backs up to the door of the airlock of Building 2 at the Astrotech payload processing facility ...

Retired shuttle paired with space lab (Update)

The space shuttle Endeavour has been paired once again with a space lab and storage pod it used on some missions, as the countdown to its final exhibit continues at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

CubeSats in orbit after historic space station deployment

(Phys.org)—Typically satellites launch from Earth, requiring dedicated launch vehicles to propel them into the proper orbit. The cost for this launch scenario could be reduced considerably if there was another way to get ...

Last spacewalk of US shuttle era ends (Update 2)

Two US astronauts wrapped up the last spacewalk of the shuttle era Tuesday at the International Space Station, where Atlantis is docked on the final mission of the 30-year US program.

Endeavour astronauts wrap up third spacewalk

Two US astronauts wrapped up their third spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Wednesday after some doing maintenance work on the Russian side of the orbiting lab, NASA said.

NASA astronauts test new exercises on space walk

Two astronauts floated out of the International Space Station on Wednesday after trying out new exercises aimed at preventing decompression sickness while conserving oxygen, NASA said.

Astronauts to try spacewalk 'hokey pokey': NASA

US astronauts on Tuesday will try out a new set of exercises to prepare them for the change in pressure they encounter on their spacewalk outside the International Space Station, NASA said.

page 1 from 2

Airlock

An airlock is a device which permits the passage of people and objects between a pressure vessel and its surroundings while minimizing the change of pressure in the vessel and loss of air from it. The lock consists of a small chamber with two airtight doors in series which do not open simultaneously.

An airlock may be used for passage between environments of different gases rather than different pressures, to minimize or prevent the gases from mixing.

An airlock may also be used underwater to allow passage between an air environment in a pressure vessel and a water environment outside, in which case the airlock can contain air or water. This is called a floodable airlock or an underwater airlock, and is used to prevent water from entering a submersible vessel or an underwater habitat.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA