ESA has tested the airlock for the European block of the lunar station Gateway

The airlock seems like a pretty simple thing. This is a section with a pair of doors that cannot be opened.

at the same time, because one of them is under pressure. The gateway allows astronauts to go out into space, keeping pressure inside the station.

But creating it is not so easy. Such air locks, as a rule, are cramped, full of equipment and present all sorts of ergonomic problems - especially for astronauts who are in zero gravity. To solve them, ESA is testing a full-size model of such a gateway, built by Comex by order of Airbus, in the Marseilles Basin.

An underwater gateway mimics the conditions of weightlessness and allows the experiment organizers to improve its design.

The development of an airlock for ESA alsoengaged by the company Thales Alenia Space. Both designs will be presented at the competition next year, and the space agency commission will choose one of the options.