Airlock

A possible airlock, with indexed and double connectors. Services include Communications, Power, Potable water, Waste water and Heat transfer fluid In and Out.

Airlocks will be required to access the settlement from the Martian surface, or to connect up vehicles to one another or to habitats.

A rectangular airlock port with a double set of connectors, such as the one illustrated can provide circuit redundancy as well as androgynous connections between any pair of airlocks. Centering would need to be done using an adjustable suspension on vehicles or habitat leveling. The facing connection could have about 15 degrees of travel and perhaps up to 20 cm of travel in a flexible bellow sleeve, making leveling less important.

The airlock port shown is 1.2 m wide x 2.2m high.

Existing ports

Berthing ports and docking ports already exist for the ISS and all space vehicles, but these are relatively small or poorly configured for gravity. They are also often male or female, making them useless for ship to ship connections, or preventing inversions of connections.