L3-DST-LOCK-STAGE
CRITICAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
Level 3 · hardware
Dust Lock Staging Area
Multi-Stage Dust Lock for Personnel/Robot Ingress
Multi-stage dust lock for personnel/robot ingress to clean interior areas, with staged dust removal (mechanical → EDS → gas) before passing inner door.
Purpose
Multi-stage dust lock for personnel/robot ingress to clean interior areas, with staged dust removal (mechanical → EDS → gas) before passing inner door.
Context
Child of L2-DST-LOCK within the Lunar Ark system
Principles
- ▸Three stages: rough mechanical (boot wash), EDS, gas blow-off
- ▸Vacuum lock between stages keeps dust outside inner volume
- ▸Interlock prevents simultaneous outer + inner door open
- ▸Sized for robotic + (rare) crewed access
- ▸Used at all habitat and clean-area entries
Typical implementations
- ▸NASA Lunar Airlock dust mitigation studies
- ▸Aerospace clean-room airlock heritage
- ▸Industrial hazmat ingress
Lunar considerations
- ▸Apollo experience drives high standard of dust isolation
- ▸Robotic-only normal operation; crewed visits engineered
- ▸Long-life mechanism
Specifications
Functional
| primary function | Multi-stage dust lock for personnel/robot ingress to clean interior areas, with staged dust removal (mechanical → EDS → gas) before passing inner door. |
| chamber volume m3 | 3 |
| cycle time min | 5 |
| dust removal percent | 99.9 |
Physical
| mass kg | 200 |
| materials | Stainless steel chamber, EDS panels, Hermetic doors |
| vacuum compatibility | True |
Operational
| power consumption w | 50 |
| thermal range c | -40, 70 |
| lifetime years | 25 |
| mtbf hours | 80000 |
Interfaces
Provides
- Dust-clean ingress to habitat
- Dust-clean ingress to cryo
Requires
- EDS drive in lock
- Gas blow-off in lock
- Chamber structure
Cite this entry
Lunar Ark Codex. "Dust Lock Staging Area" (L3-DST-LOCK-STAGE). Retrieved 10 September 2026, from https://lunarark.com/entry/L3-DST-LOCK-STAGE
Licensed CC-BY-SA 4.0. You may reuse and adapt this entry with attribution, under the same licence.