Escape pod

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A lifeboat hatch aboard the refit USS Enterprise

In starship classification, an escape pod (also known as life pod, life boat or evacuation pod) was a small craft found aboard most starships that could be used in the event the crew needed to leave the ship.

Some Klingon starships lacked escape pods. (ENT: "Sleeping Dogs", "Bounty"; DS9: "Penumbra")

Noted Uses

When the USS Enterprise-E traveled back in time to the year 2063, the crew used the ship's escape pods to leave the Borg-occupied ship. (Star Trek: First Contact)

In 2155, the crew of the ISS Enterprise NX-01 was forced to use the ships escape pods after it was traped in a Tholian web in the mirror universe. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly")

Escape pods, also known as rescue pods, of the Odin were capable of traveling at warp 1 for extended periods. It took them 5 months and 14 days to reach the nearest inhabited planet Angel I in 2357. (TNG: "Angel One")

Roga Danar used an escape pod from a stolen Angosian police shuttle in an attempt to elude the USS Enterprise-D. (TNG: "The Hunted")

In 2366, the Zalkonian known as "John Doe" used a Zalkonian vessel to escape prosecution for his slow transformation to a higher being. When the ship was attacked, "John Doe" used an escape pod to leave the ship before it was destroyed. (TNG: "Transfigurations")

Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Sisko used an escape pod during the Battle of Wolf 359 to escape from the doomed USS Saratoga. (DS9: "Emissary")

In the year 2367, the crew members of the Arcos used escape pods when they abandoned the ship above Turkana IV. (TNG: "Legacy")

Ensign Sito Jaxa was reportedly killed in a Federation evacuation pod, when she tried to return to the USS Enterprise-D after her mission, to bring back the Cardassian Joret Dal, who previously came aboard the ship in an escape pod, succeeded. (TNG: "Lower Decks")

On Stardate 46383, the Bajoran transport Ibudan had a lifeboat drill. (DS9: "A Man Alone")

Following a Dominion attack and being boarded by the Jem'Hadar, Commander Benjamin Sisko gave the order for the crew to abandon the USS Defiant using escape pods. (DS9: "The Search, Part I")

Captain Lisa Cusak and Commander Gatsby left the USS Olympia in an escape pod. However, it was torn open on impact and Gatsby was killed. (DS9: "The Sound of Her Voice")

Several crewmembers of the USS Honshu used escaped pods to leave the ship when it was being attacked by Cardassian forces. At least three escape pods detached from the Honshu before its destruction. An escape pod also landed on a planet. (DS9: "Waltz")

When the IKS Koraga was about to be destroyed by the Dominion in 2375, Worf left the ship in an escape pod. However, it drifted into the Badlands. The IKS Rotarran recovered six escape pods from the Koraga. Prior to being rescued by Ezri Dax, Worf passed the time in his escape pod by singing the Klingon opera Gav'ot toh'va. (DS9: "Penumbra", "Strange Bedfellows")

During a survey of a class T cluster designed to give away mission experience to a number of junior USS Voyager crewmembers, Crewman Mortimer Harren deliberately took an escape pod from the Delta Flyer in order to lure away dark matter lifeforms that had been pursuing the Flyer. (VOY: "Good Shepherd")

In 2377, while trying to fend off a Quarren attack, Harry Kim came up with a ingenious plan to mask the life signs of the remaining crew in the Briefing room, and ejecting two escape pods which actually contained photon torpedoes. When the Quarren ship's tractor beamed them in, they were detonated, and the Quarren ships were disabled. (VOY: "Workforce, Part II")

Types of escape pods

• Starfleet escape pods:

• Constitution-type escape pod - USS Enterprise

• 313-C

• Delta Flyer escape pod - Delta Flyer attached to USS Voyager
• Intrepid-type escape pod - USS Voyager, USS Defiant, USS Valiant
• Miranda-type escape pod - USS Saratoga
• NX type escape pod - Enterprise, ISS Enterprise
• Sovereign-type escape pod - USS Enterprise-E

• H-47

• Klingon escape pods:

• K'Vort-class escape pod - IKS Koraga

• Angosian escape pod
• Cardassian escape pod
• Kantare escape pod
• Kelvan life craft
• Retellian escape pod
• Tesnian escape pod
• Xindi-Aquatic escape pod
• Zalkonian escape pod
• Zibalian escape pod

Appendices

Appearances

• TNG:
  • "The Hunted"
  • "Transfigurations"
  • "Legacy"
• DS9:
  • "Emissary"
  • "Valiant"
  • "Penumbra"
  • "The Changing Face of Evil"
• VOY:
  • "Basics, Part II"
  • "Year of Hell, Part II"
  • "Good Shepherd"
  • "Inside Man"
  • "Workforce"
  • "Workforce, Part II"
• ENT:
  • "Precious Cargo"
  • "First Flight"
  • "Bounty"
  • "In a Mirror, Darkly"
• Star Trek: First Contact
• Star Trek

Background information

According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual they are also referred to as "Autonomous Survival and Recovery Vehicles" or ASRV on Starfleet and Federation spacecraft. It was also stated that the cube-shaped escape pods of the Galaxy-class starship were capable of docking together to form large arrays in order to pool resources. However this was never shown on screen.

External links

• Escape pod at Wikipedia
• Template:NCwiki