Airlocks for Pressurized Rovers

A report presents a survey of the design engineering and scientific literature on airlocks and on planetary-exploration vehicles ("rovers"), from the perspective of evaluating existing and potential design concepts for airlocks for pressurized rovers. The airlocks are the key to designing a pressurized rover that is useful and productive for the full range of activities and operational requirements. The report presents a representative embodiment of each of these three airlock types through illustrations of a "simplified rover." The report concludes with a cogent set of design recommendations and characteristics for the three types of airlocks that would be particularly relevant to the design of a highly capable pressurized planetary rover.