Automated Hatches

[Easterner9504]

How fast should automated hatches open? Cargo doors, sliding doors, iris valves.

In S-F Cinema nearly always slow and stately. Iris Valves in ALIEN were downright turgid. However in FORBIDDEN PLANET the house shutters slammed shut nearly instantly. One would expect that from higher tech (something CT never seemed to encourage). However safety factors would put life at risk with such blindingly fast door closures, an electric eye inhibitor might prevent accidents and might conversely let something in you wouldn't mind getting chopped in half. Conversely slow and stately cargo doors would risk damage if opened into a vacuum as un-secured cargo flew against it under explo-decomp.

What should automated doors be like?

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

about the speed of modern automated doors, I'd say :file_21:

but really, it would not be to hard to have several speeds, including a "dam fast" speed for emergencies.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Sliding doors open pretty fast on Star Trek. Star Wars, too, in a couple of places.

 

[Vladika]

Sliding doors open pretty fast on Star Trek. Star Wars, too, in a couple of places.

Hollywood Hatches and Doors move at exactly the correct speed for the drama factor required. My guess is they work that way in our "MTUs" the same way.

 

[Reban]

Hatches might have different rates of closure keyed to the alert status of the ship. Under normal conditions hatches might swish shut, while at Red Alert they might snap shut.

Equally you might have local environmental sensors feeding the hatch. Suppose a section of corridor suffers sudden depressurization. Local sensors in the corridor register the drop in pressure and a trip switch tells the hatches at both ends of the corridor to snap shut.

Snapping shut may also mean that normal safety over-rides are ignored. So while a high tech hatch might detect an obstruction like a limb and slow or pause when "swishing shut" or soft closing, a hatch snapping shut will probably crush or snip anything that obstructs it in an emergency situation.

Aliens with tails probably program their hatches to stay open that bit longer than humans.

Star Trek hatches were operated by theater hands hiding behind the wall. They didn't always get their cues, causing bumps on the noggins for some actors.

Nasty GMs, like me, sometimes glitch the ships sensors so that they ignore certain PCs or NPCs when they try to walk through a hatch way, purely for comic effect :rofl:

 

[McPerth]

Hatches might have different rates of closure keyed to the alert status of the ship. Under normal conditions hatches might swish shut, while at Red Alert they might snap shut.

ITTR a Space 1999 episode where the base commander ordered the computer that doors only obbey his own voice, as a means to seal the sections due to an emergency situation...

 

[savage]

Automated doors by the far future should have several velocities. If an automated door today can detect a person stepping in front of it then in the future they can detect species, etc.


TV automated doors, elevated doors are still manual controlled.

 

[ShapeShifter]

All hatches IMTU vessels must go "SSSSssssss!!!" :rofl:

 

[Supplement Four]

Hollywood Hatches and Doors move at exactly the correct speed for the drama factor required. My guess is they work that way in our "MTUs" the same way.

This.

I'd ask the OP, "How have you established tech in YTU? Do fast and high tech doors like those in Star Wars fit? Or, do you need manual cranks and wheels, like Alien/Aliens/Outland?

 

[Cryton]

This.

I'd ask the OP, "How have you established tech in YTU? Do fast and high tech doors like those in Star Wars fit? Or, do you need manual cranks and wheels, like Alien/Aliens/Outland?

That depends if it's a hatch, iris valve or door.