Airlock

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• Ship equipment

Description (Specifications)

An airlock is a small compartment with its own isolated environmental systems and parallel sets of doors. It permits movement between areas at different pressures or experiencing different environmental conditions.

• some airlocks may contain three or more sets of doors, typically to give a staged progress and thus allow hazards, contaminants or pathogens to be eliminated.
• Airlocks may have hatches or doors or may utilize iris valves.

Starships and bigcraft usually have at least one airlock. Smallcraft are assumed by default not to have an airlock, but may be fitted with one.

Docking Tubes

All airlocks include flexible docking tubes that allow passengers to cross from one ship to another. Docking tubes are designed to link airlocks together. Most are constructed from plastics and similar materials and are flexible. Others are rigid, articulated structures that include grav plates.

Breaching Tubes

Military vessels may have a breaching tube. This apparatus functions similarly to a docking tube, but the head contains powerful attachment mechanisms and has inherent plasma cutters. Breaching tubes are generally armored.

• If a breaching tube attaches to an airlock it may rapidly cut an opening. If it attaches to an exterior area of the hull it may still cut through, but the process takes longer.

History & Background (Dossier)

Early designs of airlock are mechanical in nature. They are most commonly found aboard watercraft and submersibles or used in environmental applications such as building entrances. More sophisticated designs, generally made of lighter materials, are occasionally used aboard aircraft. Airlocks may also be used in Environmental Tanks (such as hyperbaric chambers or medical quarantine zones). They may also be used to enter clean rooms, typically within industrial facilities were dirt or other particulate material may affect delicate manufacturing processes.

Airlocks are most commonly encountered aboard spacecraft and starships.

References & Contributors (Sources)

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• TBD
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science