Quest Joint Airlock

List of ISS modules

Quest is the third American module of the International Space Station. It was on 12 July 2001 launched aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis ( STS- 104) and three days later docked on the starboard side of the connecting module Unity.

Quest is an exit lock for extravehicular activities and can be used with both American as well as with Russian spacesuits. It consists mainly of aluminum, has an empty weight of 6.1 tonnes, a volume of 34 cubic meters, a total length of 5.5 m and a maximum diameter of 4.0 m.

Quest consists of two sections: In the first major section of the unit ( Equipment Lock) to prepare the astronauts on their exit before, create the space suits and test their correct operation. After getting maintenance performed on the suits here as well. This includes charging the batteries and refilling the oxygen tanks. The second, more slender section ( Crew Lock) is the actual airlock. About Special vacuum pumps evacuating the air in a tank before opening the outer hatch. Otherwise, this part of the module corresponds to the locks used to date in American shuttles.

There are two large oxygen and two nitrogen tanks on the outside of the lock. They have a diameter of 0.9 m, a mass of 545.4 kg each, are made of carbon fiber composite material, summarize 0.42 m³ high-pressure gas and are equipped with a multi- meteorite protection. In addition, the lock module on platforms and brackets as well as energy and communication ports has.