Escape Pods
The first group of ASRVs were delivered in 2337 in time to be fitted to the last Renaissance class starship, the USS Hokkaido, and with minimal hardware and software changes were chosen as the lifeboats for the Galaxy class. Automated facilities on the Earth, Mars, Rigel IV, and Starbase 326 produced 85 per cent of the ASRVs, with satellite facilities on Velikan V Rangifer II acting as the industry second sources of the remaining 15 per cent.
The ASRV measures 3x3x3 m and its shape is characterized as a truncated cube. The total mass is 1.35 metric tones. It's internal space frame is a standard beam and stringer arrangement, constructed from gamma-welded titanium and frumium monocarbonite. The frame is skinned with single crystal micro-filleted tritanium with umbilical passthroughs, conformal emitters, and sensors doped with hafnium cobarate for passive thermal control during atmosphere entry.
Propulsion is available from three different systems. The ejector initiator is a single pulse, buffered microfusion device that propels the lifeboat through the launch channel. Power is tapped from the fusion reaction to start the lifeboats inertial dampening field and gravity generator.
The main impulse engine, a low-power microfusion system for all primary spacecraft maneuvering, is rated at a maximum thrust of 9500 Newtons and is fed from a 75kg deuterium fuel supply. The reaction control system provides precise attitude control in space, and maneuvering during planetary landing.
Life support on the ASRV is maintained by its automated environmental system, providing complete atmospheric composition, pressure, humidity and temperature control. Stored food and water supplies as well as a waste management system are included . Lightweight environmental suits are stowed with portable survival packs for planetary operations.
The normal capacity of a lifeboat is four, although provisions are provided for as many as six.
One important feature of the ASRV design, the inline docking hatches, allow it to dock with other lifeboats to form large clusters. This capability, nicknamed "gaggle-mode", dramatically increases in-space survival rates by allowing access to wounded crew members by medical personnel, combining consumables supplies, and adding propulsion options. Gaggle mode must be terminated before atmospheric entry, as the structural loads cannot be handled by the combined craft.
Out of the four hundred lifeboats on the Galaxy class, eighty are specialized with two additional docking ports to increase the packing density and structural integrity of the gaggle.
Crucial to the recovery of lifeboats are the subspace communications system and automatic distress beacons.
