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Airlock
Warning! EVA Area
Function:
Airlock to space
To provide access to space for astronauts
To provide backup airlock doors and seals between docking area and station work and habitat areas
EVA - Extra Vehicular Activities
If you travel to the Space Station by Shuttle you will not need to wear a space suit, nor while you are aboard the station. Instead you will wear a flight suit, similar to that worn by pilots of non-commercial aircraft. The important thing is that it is comfortable, doesn't flap around in weightlessness, and has plenty of pockets to keep all those little items that could float off round the space station!
When astronauts need to go EVA (extra-vehicular activity) they do need a space suit, however. If you are climbing over the outside of a spacecraft, working in the open Shuttle bay, or walking on the Moon, you are effectively in space. So you need to be completely sealed inside your own personal spacecraft - your suit.
The suit maintains oxygen for you to breathe, pressure to stop your blood boiling, a comfortable temperature so you neither freeze nor bake, and fireproof material to shield you from radiation and micrometeorites. The helmet is attached to the suit and has a two-way radio, the tube to your water supply, and a gold-tinted visor to protect your eyes from the very harsh ultraviolet sunlight.
Your back-pack contains the oxygen supply, water to drink via a tube, a ventilator to circulate oxygen round the suit to keep your body at a pressure that is about the same as that in an airliner cabin, a lithium hydroxide and carbon filter to remove the carbon dioxide and moisture you breathe out, a pump to pump water around the suit to cool it, and batteries to keep this all working for about seven hours. Luckily the weight of this is not a problem for you in space!
© Image: Nasa
Extending the Station
Space Station 2020 was assembled from modules. It can be further extended by adding more modules. To do this we need to uncouple this EVA Airlock and fit another Command Node Module. We can then plug six more Function modules to this and fit the EVA Airlock back in the centre of this new arrangement. This can be repeated several times, but eventually the structure will not be strong enough for the station to hold together. We will limit our extension to three extra Command Node Modules.
If you add more modules you will need more power and additional services such as life support and data distribution. You will also have more people on board, so you need more habitat modules and places for eating and recreation. Go to the Robot Arm 2 Module to find out what each module needs in terms of power and crew.
Project:
If you have toured the Station you may have found that although it "works", many other modules and components could be added. If you haven't do so now.
At present our Station is for research, industrial manufacture and spacecraft repair. What else can we use it for?
Your task is to decide what these are and what they might look like.
Think about:
- A Space Garden
- Visitors - How about a space hotel with a spherical space swimming pool
- Tethers for Power Generation?
- A Satellite Parking Lot
- A Hanger - where entire spacecaft can be brought in for maintenance
- A Big Telescope
Go to Space Station 2020 Specification
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SPACE STATION 2020 
