As I understand it, a lifeboat has no warp capability and has limited storage capabilities. Which means that it is practical, when for use within a star system. However what if something were to happen in deep space? Then they should be out of luck and just die an agonizing death. Although episodes like "Angel One" and "Year of Hell", seem to contradict this idea.
But there's still a chance someone heard their distress call and will come and rescue them in time. It may be a miniscule chance, but I'd rather have that than nothing. (I'd also rather run for the shuttle deck than an escape pod, but that's a different discussion. )
We have never watched a lifeboat up close, at least not in a situation that would call for it to utilize a drive system. The closest we get to seeing a lifeboat in action is ST:FC (where the E-E pods make just a short hop to Earth) or ENT "Precious Cargo" (where a pod drops out of the warp field of the mothership and covers about 90 million kilometers in a day, again a relatively short hop). But like you say, dialogue quotes higher performance. There's no obvious reason why the pods glimpsed in, say, DS9 "Emissary" or TNG "Legacy" couldn't have warp drive aboard. They are not that much smaller than warp-capable shuttlecraft, after all. But when Picard evacuates from the Stargazer after the battle at Maxia, he does so in "shuttlecraft" rather than lifepods. Perhaps starships in general come with various grades of evacuation hardware, and lifepods compensate for their lack of speed and range by... Being cramped and uncomfortable? Timo Saloniemi
While there may not be enough shuttlecraft for everyone, there should be enough escape pods. Certainly people would prefer to escape via shuttle rather than pod for greater options (scouting habitable areas of whatever planet they're in range of, probably greater communications capabilities than escape pods, the ability to warp to a nearby starbase, etc), and there are probably crewers whose main responsibility is shuttle operations that would be in a greater position to grab shuttles and GTFO in case of emergency than make it to the escape pods anyway. But even if no shuttles make it, the escape pods which do survive can gaggle together and wait for rescue, with the supplies and oxygen to last long enough for a larger ship to arrive. Very seldom does a ship get downright obliterated without enough time to broadcast a subspace distress signal. If crew can survive long enough to get to the escape pods, someone can live long enough to send a distress signal. Escape pods probably aren't the most comfortable way to hang out for several days or a few weeks, but if you know help's on the way, it's doable.
Well the tech manuals from memory say that the escape pods can link uptogether to form a larger ship. Which could come in handy from a supply/power point of view as well as allowing medical persons to treat injured crew in other escape pods. But an escape pod (read lifeboat) is better than not having one. If you were on a ship today and that ran into trouble, there might not be others ships close enough to get to you before you sank. Would you rather have no lifeboat or a lifeboat and wait for rescue? Wouldn't the same hold true in space?
Not necessarily. A lifeboat today is likely to be picked up in a few days at most. Some aren't, but Earth's oceans are survivable for lifeboat ordeals taking the better part of a year, provided a source of drinkable water can be found. (Sometimes fish blood will do for lack of rain.) Yet in space, in the conditions of TOS at least, one might have to wait several years for rescue. For the first few weeks, survival might feel preferable to death. After that, the reverse might well be true. Perhaps TOS ships actually had cabinets full of cyanide pills? Timo Saloniemi
Have we ever seen inside a 24th century escape pod/lifeboat? I'd think that they would have enough power for several days or weeks of life support, subspace communications, and a basic replicator for emergency rations. That's how I'd design them, anyway.
Yep, but only the bus-sized ones from the Saratoga at the beginning of DS9. In terms of the size of the required technology, there SHOULD be no reason they wouldn't have some form of warp drive aboard, but Trek in general says that FTP travel requires antimatter-level power; this generally means that they don't want to have dozens of small craft with tiny warp cores aboard to constantly maintain. OTOH, we've seen them stuff a warp drive AND a person into a probe casing for some rather uncomfortable transportation in urgent circumstances, so it DOES happen. Mark
lifeboats/pods are also ready and can be launched in seconds, and are on almost every deck that has an exterior surface shuttles take at least some prep time and are only in the special bays which might take minutes to get to
Personally, I like to think that lifeboats are generally deployed within immediate range of a M-class planet and/or within communication range of a starbase. In a best case scenario, rescue by Starfleet or allied agencies would be in only a few days, tops. IMO, the worst case scenario would be deploying them far from anywhere, which would likely require gaggling the lifeboats and possibly shuttles together in some fashion. There may be a number of instances in which a captain might decide it's infeasible to deploy lifeboats if the chances of a timely rescue or survival are slim.
USS Stargazer (like USS Kelvin) might have had a large number of shuttlecraft. Enough for the entire crew in an emergency. The Constellations certainly seem to have a large number of shuttlebays in the saucer.
It's been mentioned in the Tech Manual that the pods can connect together. It would make sense that a string of pods could connect to a shuttlecraft and be flown out of the area to safety at a low warp.
...Depends on how good shuttles are at towing things at warp. This whole "extending a warp field" business might be the privilege of larger vessels in general. A number of bays of some sort, at any rate. For all we know, the bow shutters cover a navigational deflector, and the side shutters hide sensors or cargo holds. Plus at least one facility for the quoted shuttlecraft, of course. Timo Saloniemi
Not necessarily. A small fusion core would probably also allow for warp propulsion. It wouldn't be very fast, but it would probably still be better than sublight, and allow to go to a nearby system, and wait for help. It could easily be the responsibility of any surviving shuttlecraft to tractor the pods to the nearest planet-habitable if possible, one at a time, if necessary (or at least as long as the fuel holds out). I imagine that a standard shuttlecraft could carry at least one pod, while the bigger ones might be able to carry two or three at a time. Any runabouts onboard, if they survived of course, could probably carry even more at warp, and hopefully make enough trips, assuming their fuel reserves were topped off at the time. Even then, if there is a nearby nebula, well, those bussard collectors are there for a reason. And the captain's yacht would also be useful for that as well, and if she still has enough fuel after getting the lifepods to some sort of safety, might even go off to get help, or scout for a more habitable planet. At least that is how I imagine the directive for the evacuation of a starship would be like, assuming there is enough time to get all of the shuttles, runabouts, and the yacht clear.
But that presupposes a orderly and complete evacuation. If you have mere seconds to get out, there might be dozens of lifeboats and no shuttles. Having all lifeboats equiped with a warp drive similar to the one on the two seat shuttle-pod would make sense (to me), it would enable each lifeboat to "self-rescue" from interstellar space. It would be like the lifeboats from days of old, equiped with a mast and a rolled up sail.
They might also have some sort of stasis field or hibernation ability and a recycling system to allow crew members survive for longer periods.
Hmmm, would that conserve power, or consume even more than having everyone awake? Would help skip the boredom of multiple weeks of crawling to the closest habitable planet.
We don't know if modern stasis devices are of high or low power consumption: when used in VOY "One", they were being fed power from a warp-capable vessel, so there was by definition lots of power available, but did they consume any significant portion thereof? We can't tell. Presumably, the same sort of stasis is used at morgues, and was safe enough for the living Odo in DS9 "Invasive Procedures", too, but again there were no power limitations aboard the station. However, the forgotten cryogenic stasis tech from the days of Khan clearly consumed minimal power. Perhaps a variant thereof could have been adopted for modern lifeboats some time after TOS? Personally, I think stasis has always been standard tech for Starfleet, even if cryogenic means were ditched in the early 21st century. And it's low power (why would it be anything else?) as long as it doesn't try anything demanding like the Klingon weapon in TAS "More Tribbles", and can be found aboard lifepods. Timo Saloniemi
Even at a low warp two it could take years to get to the nearest habitable planet. Though it might only take months, it would still take a while. The transponder would need to be powerful enough to flag down any passing starships to quicken the rescue.
In Trek we never know how much power is available or any limitations unless it is important to the plot. I think for an escape pod they would make sure there would be plenty of power to support crew members for a long as it would take to rescue them (or they can get to help). Most likely boredom and lack of exercise would be bigger issues than power- some sort of way to put them into 'storage' would make sense if you are facing several months being stuck inside one of these things...