The Airlock
A room or compartment permitting passage between environments of differing atmospheric pressure or composition.
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.
Quick Facts
- Franchise
- System Shock
- Setting
- Citadel Station (TriOptimum station)
- Developer
- Looking Glass Studios
- Publisher
- Activision
- Type
- Transitional; boundary chamber
- Thematic role
- Isolation; boundary between habitation and void
Lore & Background
The first airlock patent was granted in 1830 to Thomas Cochrane. The Apollo program involved developments in airlock technology. During the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, the cabin was used as an airlock. In 1989 the Kvant-2 module, which included an airlock, was added to the Mir space station. The International Space Station did not include an airlock when it first began to house humans in November 2000; 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 the ISS in December 2020.
Reader's Guide
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, reduces stresses on air seals, and allows safe verification of critical equipment. When a person who is not in 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. In cleanrooms, positive pressure can exclude particulates; in hazardous environments, negative room pressure prevents particulates from escaping. Airlocks are also used in inflatable buildings, electron microscopes, fermentation, parachutes, and Egyptian pyramid exploration.
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