Every starship that calls itself respectable needs a boarding ramp. Boarding ramps are a bit more complicated to make than anything we've seen so far. Build a setup like this picture, and put it at the edge of the bottom of your ship.
Courtesy seamonster
Setting up a boarding ramp[]
The boarding ramp is designed to go at the end or side of a ship, and work with landing gears. The space for a boarding ramp needs is 4 blocks long x 2 blocks high x 1 block wide. The two stairs will be furthest from the sign. The block closest to the sign will disappear when the ramp is lowered. There needs to be an air block beneath the block with the sign on it. Look at the reference pictures for examples of how this should be done.
The stairs can be any type of stairs, and the wool can be whatever blocks you like, not just wool. To make the sign that you can see there, put [boardingramp] on the first line and right click it. The boarding ramp will then register. To extend the boarding ramp, right click on it. To retract it, right click on it again.
A side view of a boarding ramp closed
A side view of a boarding ramp opened