Ask Lemmy

With the exception of the recent Starliner fiasco, there are never more people on board the station than there are seats on the visiting spacecraft. In the event of a catastrophe, the Soyuz and Dragons function as lifeboats. To leave the station, you need to be able to close the station hatch from the spacecraft side. If you didn’t, the entire station would depressurize in your face when you undocked, which could cause a navigational hazard for the escaping ship.

Therefore, it must be possible to crank the station hatch shut from the visiting vehicle side, and, it stands to reason, the reverse is true.

This is a photo of the space-facing side of Shuttle / Dragon docking port on the station. The middle is a target to assist pilots in manually flying into the port straight and level. It was needed for the shuttle, newer spacecraft have automatic guidance. At 12 o’clock is a handle to help pull the hatch shut. (To open, you push the hatch in.) At 6 o’clock I believe is a socket you can put a crank into to seal or unseal the hatch. At 10:30 is a pressure equalization valve.

I mean, if you have the ability to build a spacecraft and get there, you've already overcome far larger barriers. Any physical security on the door is going to be comparatively irrelevant as a barrier.

Locks, like walls and other passive defenses, aren't designed to stop people. They're designed to keep basically-honest people honest and slow down the rest to the point where other things, like people, can deal with them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe#Burglary_ratings

The highest safe rating here against burglary is 30 minutes of resistance against someone equipped with suitable tools (like, cutting torches and such).

If you can get up to the ISS, it's a pretty safe bet that nobody's going to show up in 30 minutes to do anything about you entering.

I think the question has two answers:

Are they locked from the outside? And are the locked from the inside?

My understanding is that they are actually locked. Here are two links with some information.

First, there's an interesting bit of lore about the doors on the space shuttle that might shed some insight:

*What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he’s not coming back? [Ars Technica]*

Apparently the Space Shuttle originally had a handle for opening the door that was found after the shuttle entered use to have a bad habit of instilling a bit of "call-of-the-void". They eventually added a padlock. Also, it should be noted that these doors are not Star Trek-like sliding doors with a bunch of electronics. They're much more like submarine bulkheads with big-ass mechanics, as I understand it. This was on the shuttle, but I think the design logic of the ISS was inherited from the space shuttle.

Second is this post on Stack Exchange:

*Is there no physical security in space, other than being in space? [Space Exploration Stack Exchange]*

User TidalWave explains how hatches in general on the ISS are not accessible from the outside. They're opened from the inside. I would assume that some exceptions probably exist for edge cases. They must have had a way to get in the first time, for instance. But by and large, it appears that the ISS is not accessible from the outside.

They don't have locks, but they do have a doorbell.

Them having an additional gate, that is locked by a bikelock is now my headcanon.

People are strange.

How did the first astronauts get inside?

Well, they are airlocked

Really only a problem on Midnight. Spectacular views, but the locals are a nightmare.

This is a question I never ever thought about, but thank you for posting it - now I wonder about it as well