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Robotic Future · Homes beyond Earth

Airlock and suit hangar

Topic: dust control

The doorway between the habitat and the outside, where spacesuits are stored and the clingy, sharp dust is kept out.

Purpose
Getting in and out safely
Biggest enemy
Lunar and Martian dust
Apollo lesson
Dust got everywhere
Idea
Suitports: suits that stay outside

Find it on the map

Real world How an airlock works

An airlock is a small room with two doors. To go outside, an astronaut in a spacesuit enters, closes the inner door, and the air is pumped out. Then the outer door opens. Coming back, the steps are reversed. Only one door is ever open at a time, so the habitat never loses its air.

Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, his suit covered in clinging lunar dust (1972). Photo: NASA Eugene Cernan, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Real world The dust problem

The Apollo astronauts discovered that lunar dust is a serious problem. Because there is no wind or water on the Moon to wear it smooth, the grains are jagged like broken glass. The dust clung to suits, scratched visors, clogged joints and seals, and some astronauts reported sneezing and irritated eyes after taking off their suits inside the lander.

Possible future How a future hangar could solve it

  • Suitports: spacesuits stay attached to the outside wall, and astronauts climb in from inside through a hatch in the back, so dusty suits never enter.
  • Dust-repelling coatings and electric fields that push dust off surfaces.
  • Brushes, air jets and a "mud room" between outside and living areas.
  • Hangars to service rovers and suits away from living spaces.

Art In this artwork

This illustration shows a hangar-like building with a large armored door and a satellite dish. Here we imagine it as the settlement's airlock and suit hangar.

Look closer

  • Find the big door. What size of vehicle could use it?
  • Where might suits be stored?

Think about it

  1. Why must only one airlock door open at a time?
  2. How do you keep mud out of your home on rainy days? Could that help on the Moon?
  3. What would you design to clean a dusty spacesuit?

Key words

Airlock
A small room with two doors for moving between different air pressures.
Suitport
A hatch where a spacesuit attaches to the outside of a vehicle or habitat.
Abrasive
Rough enough to scratch or wear things down.

Sources

The real-world facts on this page are based on these sources:

  • NASA, studies of lunar dust from the Apollo missions
  • NASA Human Research Program, hazards of human spaceflight (radiation, isolation, distance, gravity, hostile environments)

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