Area between a docking object and the object of docking

Question

We have a space station, which is the object of docking (OOD), and a spaceship, which is the docking object (DO).

What's the name of the area between the DO and the OOD once the DO docks with OOD?

I thought it was "a bridge" at first but a bridge is "the raised part of a ship on which the captain and other officers stand and from where they control the movement of the ship".

I was thinking of "ramp" but no dictionary has a definition I need.

I found "docking port" at NASA but it refers only to the retractable socket that grips the docking ship.

I found "docking compartment" and "docking module" but can't understand what they refer to.

Edit: The area should be a tunnel of some kind through which an astronaut must pass in order to reach the station.

It should be something like this only in space. It should be extendable and lead to a decompression chamber of the space station. It may be rectangular or cylindrical or any other shape. It may be within another extendable object like a wrapped tunnel. Is there some unified name for it?

Answer 1

I would call the means of ingress/egress to/from the station the gangway.

P.S. We can call the means of ingress/egress to/from the station the gangway because a gangway is the name for the structure that allows people and cargo to cross from the ship over to the dock (and vice versa). The situation in space is analogous. We even call them "space ships".

P.P.S. Gangway An opening in the bulwark of the ship to allow passengers to board or leave the ship. (Wikipedia Glossary of nautical terms)

Answer 2

Within reason, I think the terminology is open to debate and change, as different mechanisms appear and the physical structure changes (and people try to be creative and quirky, because space is cool again).

If, for example, you had a tunnel (extendable or permanent) then it would be entirely reasonable and understandable to call it a docking tunnel (used in some NASA documentation) or a docking sleeve if extendable.

The probe, drogue, tension tie, and a docking ring are the principal components of the docking subsystem. Each module also contains a docking pressure hatch and a tunnel through which the astronauts will transfer from one vehicle to the other.

Your dismissal of bridge might be a bit premature, as it also refers to something people can travel (float?) across, which would work in this context.

I'm not sure, as a native speaker, that ramp seems to work here. To me, it implies moving up a slope.

A docking module is a more generic term that might mean the docking mechanism, including its mating ring, or it could mean the entire structure including any tunnel.

Answer 3

If you merely want to refer to it, it would be called the dock. It's really not important if it's a long tunnel, a zero-length portal, or an extension of both ships connected in the middle, "dock" works well and will be understood.

If you for some reason need to illustrate what the dock looks like, then you might use docking tunnel or docking station but for simple reference -- just dock.

Answer 4

My personal choices might well be docking station and docking port as a reasonably generic term for describing a place where something can dock (although probably not the bit that joins the two). A Wikipedia article on spacecraft docking and berthing appears to favour docking interface.

The bit that joins the two could be called a docking arm or transfer passage (the term used in the Wikipedia article). If it was reasonably small, it could probably be called an airlock.

I guess if you are most interested in the connector (which is I guess another word you could use), it would seem transfer passage is the most appropriate existing term, although I don't think anyone would know what you were talking about out of context.