08. What is the equipment lock? (A K2S Question)

From The Space Library

The equipment lock is similar to a locker room, in that it's the primary area where the crewmembers put on and take off their spacesuits. It's also the primary area for servicing and stowing the spacesuits. After exercising on the bicycle, spacewalkers float into the equipment lock where the ambient pressure is gradually lowered to 10.2 psi to help prepare their bodies for the even lower pressures they will encounter inside their spacesuits. The astronauts don their spacesuits and double check all of their equipment. As spacesuits are complex and bulky machines that weigh as much as 300 pounds on Earth, this can be a laborious process. After another 60 minutes of breathing pure oxygen inside the suit, up to two astronauts move into the cramped quarters of the crewlock.

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Answer provided by Russell Romanella

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer

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