#The space in between two air locks movie#

'Explosive' depressurization of a spacecraft would be similar to that of an airliner, requiring sudden massive structural failure.

It's really not much greater than the pressure difference an airliner has to cope with. Hollywood loves to go overboard and massively exaggerate it for the sake of special effects. This pressure difference is smaller than you might think. This means that there is a huge pressure difference between the inside of the shuttle and the outside vacuum of space. I haven't seen the movie, but exposing an airlock, or even the inside of a ship to a sudden vacuum wouldn't cause any kind of structural failure unless something else was wrong with the structure. When there is a rupture in the box, the stresses decrease, and the inward force dominates, giving rise to an acceleration (of both the gas and the box in opposite directions). There is an outward force on all inner surfaces of the box, and there is an inward force (exactly equal) which comes from the box's loadbearing members. In this case, the stresses are exactly equal to the force since the box is at rest and has not ruptured. Does the box feel any force or stress from the pressure difference even though it is completely sealed? So the challenge is constructing a pressure vessel with the least possible mass with the largest possible safety margin - not an easy task. The problem with sealing spacecraft is the same as the problem with pressurizing aircraft - all that small pressure difference adds up over the large surface area, and all load bearing materials need to be extremely light. To give that some perspective: the pressure difference between the inside of your soda bottle and the outside air is around 20-120psi (depending on temperature and a bunch of other factors). The difference in pressure between outer space and the cabin is only 14.7psi. The pressure difference really isn't that great. Is there a large amount of stress enacted upon the walls of the spaceship due to this, or would that large amount of stress only occur in the even a leak happened? Is there a large amount of stress enacted upon the walls of the spaceship due to this, or would that large amount of stress only occur in the even a leak happened?Įssentially, lets say you have a box in space that is 100% air tight sealed.

I am assuming the cabin is pressurized even when it is floating in the vacuum of space. I am confused by this.Īlso, I am confused by something else considering spaceships.

#The space in between two air locks movie#

Why did this explosion occur? When they open an airlock I know they do it more slowly than in the movie I saw, but either way it ends up being exposed to the vacuum of space. Part of the first ship completely exploded. I saw a certain movie this weekend where a gentleman unlocks the first door of the airlock leading into another spaceship when the two ships were not completely sealed, therefor exposing the tunnel of the airlock to outer space when he opened that first door. I am having some trouble understanding airlocks in space.