Surely the character knows this will happen through her training. Why wouldn't the hatch have a better mechanism such that astronauts do not run the risk of flying into space.
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5It wouldn't be normal to open the hatch when the enclosed space was pressurized, it would be normal to depressurize the space in a controlled way before opening the hatch.– iandotkelly ♦Dec 31, 2013 at 23:23
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In an emergency situation the hatch is openable from the outside, so why design it to blow out?– P399Jan 1, 2014 at 0:13
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5Its an emergency - how can you prevent the force from the pressure contained? Either you allow external controls to vent the pressure before opening (either these don't exist or they were not used) or the hatch will open with some force.– iandotkelly ♦Jan 1, 2014 at 6:04
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2 Answers
Surely the character knows this will happen through her training.
Of course she knows it will happen. There is (possibly) pressure on the inside and certainly none at the outside: it is physics basics, no training needed.
But I doubt that Ryan Stone's training dealt with this kind of an emergency situation. She has had six months of training according to the dialogue in the movie. I am no expert, but six months sounds rather minimal to me. It could be enough though, considering she is "just" a scientist added to the crew to install/setup some hardware. The emergency training for this kind of debris catastrophe, if at all, would be for the commander, the captain and mission control.
Why wouldn't the hatch have a better mechanism such that astronauts do not run the risk of flying into space.
There is no need to: There is no risk if Ryan would have secured herself with the carabiner hook (as she did when she unscrewed the connectors between the ISS and the ship), and/or if she would not have been on top of the hatch but in front of it instead. But both times she was in respiratory distress and simply did not think of it in the panic.
The technology in "Gravity" was largely (but not exclusively) based on real-world technology. The film featured consultants from NASA, former astronauts as well as shuttle and space engineers.
The short answer for why the capsule in Gravity uses an explosive hatch is simply because that's what is used in reality.
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@ngln - Er, that's what happens when you violently depressurise a spaceship with a hinged door.– user7812May 24, 2014 at 15:02
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The hinged door may have explosive bolts, but they do not explode. The door just swings open, although real hard. Remember that she closes the doors afterwards. The question is about the situation with an astronaut on the outside, while you answer for a situation with an astronaut on the inside.– NGLNMay 24, 2014 at 15:19