29-426: A docking compartment is a module of a space station to which visiting spacecraft can dock. Docking Compartment may refer to: Docking Compartment 1 (Pirs) Docking Compartment 2 (Poisk) See also [ edit ] Mini-Research Modules Mir Docking Module [REDACTED] Index of articles associated with the same name This set index article includes
58-412: A caisson or sealed tunnel . The airlock may need to be large enough to accommodate a whole working shift at the same time. Locking in is usually a quick procedure, taking only a few minutes, while the decompression required for locking out may take hours. Underwater applications include: In saturation diving , airlocks are crucial safety elements; they serve as pressurized gateways to safely manage
87-504: A decontamination procedure and flushing are used instead of pressure change procedures. The first airlock patent was granted in 1830 to Thomas Cochrane , who came up with the idea to help facilitate underground tunnel construction. It was put into use in 1879 during an attempt to dig a tunnel under the Hudson river . The Apollo program involved developments in airlock technology, as airlocks are critical to allow humans to enter and exit
116-582: A pressure suit moves between environments of greatly different pressures, an airlock changes the pressure slowly to help with internal air cavity equalization and to prevent decompression sickness . This is critical in underwater diving , and a diver or compressed air worker may have to wait in an airlock for a number of hours in accordance with a decompression schedule . A similar arrangement may be used for access to airtight clean spaces, contaminated spaces, or unbreathable atmospheres, which may not necessarily involve any differences in pressure; in these cases,
145-573: A hyperbaric escape chamber or lifeboat without significant pressure changes. In any hyperbaric treatment chamber capable of accommodating more than one person, and where it may be necessary to get a person or equipment into or out of the chamber while it is pressurized, an airlock is used. There will usually be a large airlock at the chamber entry capable of holding one or more persons, and a smaller medical lock for locking in medical supplies and food, and locking out waste. Airlocks are used in outer space, especially during human spaceflight , to maintain
174-556: A list of related items that share the same name (or similar names). If an internal link incorrectly led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Docking_Compartment&oldid=990385316 " Categories : Set index articles Components of the International Space Station Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description
203-492: A medical lock for secure passage of medical necessities or emergency evacuations. Complex "split-level" systems, which house divers at different pressure levels for varied work depths, may necessitate additional airlocks. Decompression post-dive is a gradual process, often taking a full week. During this time, the airlocks allow divers to shift to a decompression chamber where pressure is progressively reduced back to surface levels. In emergencies, airlocks can facilitate transfer to
232-475: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Docking Compartment 1 Pirs ( Russian : Пирс , meaning " pier ") – also called Stykovochny Otsek 1 ( SO-1 ; Russian : Стыковочный отсек , " docking module ") and DC-1 ( Docking Compartment 1 ) – was a Russian module on the International Space Station (ISS). Pirs was launched on 14 September 2001, and was located on
261-550: The Zvezda module of the station. It provided the ISS with one docking port for Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, and allowed egress and ingress for spacewalks by cosmonauts using Russian Orlan space suits . Pirs was docked to Zvezda for almost 20 years, until 26 July 2021, when it was decommissioned and undocked by Progress MS-16 to make way for the new Nauka module. A second docking compartment, Stykovochniy Otsek 2 ( SO-2 ),
290-473: The 1980s, airlock technology has been used to explore newly detected chambers in the Egyptian pyramids , to prevent the contents from beginning to decompose due to air contamination. Civil engineering projects that use air pressure to keep water and mud out of the workplace use an airlock to transfer personnel, equipment, and materials between the external normabaric environment and the pressurized workplace in
319-598: The 65th expedition aboard the ISS, were preparing the Pirs module for its departure on 23 July. The Pirs module supported 52 spacewalks and served as a docking port for Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft ferrying crew and cargo to and from the space station. After nearly 20 years at the International Space Station, ISS, the Pirs Docking Compartment, SO1, undocked from the nadir (Earth-facing) port of
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#1733116280115348-500: The ISS in December 2020. It is "bell-shaped" and is designed to transfer payloads out from the ISS interior and into space. As of July 2023 it is the largest airlock of its kind on the station, capable of fitting "payloads as large as a refrigerator." Airlocks are used in air-to-air environments for a variety of reasons, most of which center around either preventing airborne contaminants from entering or exiting an area, or maintaining
377-537: The ISS. The deorbiting maneuver was planned within around three hours aiming at the reentry of the Pirs /Progress stack over the Pacific. Progress MS-16 initiated braking maneuver as planned at 17:01 Moscow Time (10:01 a.m. EDT) and after a 1,057-second (17.6-minute) burn, the module/cargo ship duo reentered the dense atmosphere at 17:42 Moscow Time (10:42 a.m. EDT). According to NASA, the Pirs Docking Compartment spent 19 years, 313 days 9 hours 50 minutes and 45 seconds at
406-582: The Zvezda Service Module, SM, on 26 July 2021, at 13:55 Moscow Time (6:55 a.m. EDT) in the joint stack with the Progress MS-16 cargo ship. At the time, the spacecraft was orbiting the Earth over Eastern China and within communications range of Russian ground stations. Within four minutes (13:59:00 Moscow Time, according to schedule), Progress MS-16 performed a short separation burn to increase distance from
435-487: The air pressure of the interior chamber. One common use of airlock technology can be found in some cleanrooms , where harmful or otherwise undesired particulates can be excluded by maintaining the room at a higher pressure than the surroundings, alongside other measures. Conversely, particulates are prevented from escaping hazardous environments, such as nuclear reactors , laboratories of biochemistry , and medical centers, by keeping negative room pressure - maintaining
464-693: The cabin without a space suit . When the International Space Station (ISS) first began to house humans in November 2000, it did not include an airlock, and all extravehicular activity had to be facilitated by the airlock on the Space Shuttle until the Quest Joint Airlock module was installed in July 2001. The first ever commercial space airlock was the Nanoracks Bishop Airlock , installed on
493-433: The external or ambient pressure environment, sealing it, equalizing the pressure, and passing through the inner door is known as locking in . Conversely, locking out involves equalizing pressure, unsealing the outer door, then exiting the lock compartment to enter the ambient environment. Locking on and off refer to transfer under pressure where the two chambers are physically connected or disconnected prior to equalizing
522-450: The form of an antechamber . An airlock may also be used underwater to allow passage between the air environment in a pressure vessel , such as a submarine , and the water environment outside. In such cases the airlock can contain air or water . This is called a floodable airlock or underwater airlock , and is used to prevent water from entering a submersible vessel or underwater habitat . The procedure of entering an airlock from
551-560: The internal habitable environment on spacecraft and space stations when persons are exiting or entering the spacecraft. Without an airlock (or similar technology, such as a suitport ) the air inside would be rapidly lost upon opening the door due to the expansive properties of the gases that comprise breathable air , as described by Boyle's law . An airlock room is needed to decompress astronauts after they suit up in specialized space suits in preparation for extravehicular activity , and then to recompress them upon return. Airlocks such as
580-501: The most cost-efficient way to allow people to enter and exit these structures. Airlocks are utilized to maintain electron microscope interiors at near-vacuum so that air does not affect the electron path. Fermentation locks , such as those used in alcohol brewing, are a type of airlock which allow gases to escape the fermentation vessel while keeping air out. Parachute airlocks are necessary because airfoil collapse due to depressurization can result in dangerous loss of altitude. Since
609-401: The pressure and locking in or out. Before opening either door, the air pressure of the airlock chamber is equalized with that of the environment beyond the next door. A gradual pressure transition minimizes air temperature fluctuations, which helps reduce fogging and condensation , decreases stresses on air seals, and allows safe verification of critical equipment. When a person who is not in
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#1733116280115638-405: The room at a lower pressure than the surroundings, so that air (and any particulates that it carries) cannot escape easily. A lesser-known application of an airlock is in architecture: inflatable buildings and air-supported structures such as pressurized domes require the internal air pressure to be maintained within a specific range so that the structure doesn't collapse. Airlocks are generally
667-741: The space station. In addition, the Docking Compartment could transfer fuel from the fuel tanks of a docked Progress resupply vehicle to either the Zvezda Service Module’s Integrated Propulsion System or the Zarya Functional Cargo Block. It could also transfer propellant from Zvezda and Zarya to the propulsion system of docked vehicles — Soyuz and Progress. The two airlocks were designed to accommodate spacewalking cosmonauts wearing Russian Orlan-M spacesuits . The Pirs docking compartment
696-459: The spacecraft while on the Moon without losing too much air due to its scant atmosphere . During the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, there was no room that was primarily designed to be an airlock; instead, they used the cabin as an airlock. It had to be evacuated and depressurized before the door was opened, and then once the door was closed it had to be re-pressurized again before anyone could safely reenter
725-576: The station and 19 years 315 days 15 hours 10 minutes and 47 seconds in flight. Airlock An airlock is a room or compartment which permits passage between environments of differing atmospheric pressure or composition, while minimizing the changing of pressure or composition between the differing environments. An airlock consists of a chamber with two airtight doors or openings, usually arranged in series, which do not open simultaneously. Airlocks can be small-scale mechanisms, such as those used in fermenting , or larger mechanisms, which often take
754-417: The transfer of divers and support personnel between the saturation system (living quarters) and the diving bell , which shuttles divers to their underwater worksite. Airlocks in saturation diving are equipped with safety features such as pressure gauges , manual overrides , and interlocks . Saturation systems typically feature a variety of airlocks, including a stores lock for the transfer of supplies and
783-556: Was attached to the nadir (bottom, Earth-facing) port of the Zvezda service module. Pirs docked to the International Space Station on 17 September 2001, at 01:05 UTC, and was configured during three spacewalks by the Expedition 3 crew. Two Strela cargo cranes were later added by the STS-96 and STS-101 missions, carried up on Integrated Cargo Carriers and installed during EVAs. On 14 July 2021, Roskosmos announced that members of
812-529: Was manufactured by RKK Energia . The Docking Compartment was similar to the Mir Docking Module used on the earlier Mir space station. The docking compartment's planned lifetime as part of the station was five years. Pirs was launched on 14 September 2001, as ISS Assembly Mission 4R, on a Russian Soyuz-U launch vehicle, using a modified Progress spacecraft , Progress DC-1 , as an upper stage. The 3,580 kg (7,890 lb) Pirs Docking Compartment
841-770: Was planned with the same design. However, when the Russian segment of the ISS was redesigned in 2001, the new design no longer included the SO-2, and its construction was canceled. After another change of plans the SO-2 module finally evolved into the Poisk module, which was added to the ISS in 2009. The Pirs docking compartment had two primary functions: to provide a docking port for visiting Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and to serve as an airlock for Russian EVAs. The docking port could accommodate one Soyuz-MS or one Progress-MS spacecraft. Visiting spacecraft could deliver people and cargo to and from
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