An escape pod, escape capsule, life capsule, or lifepod is a capsule or craft, usually only big enough for one person, used to escape from a vessel in an emergency. An escape ship is a larger, more complete craft also used for the same purpose. Escape pods are ubiquitous in science fiction but are only used in a few real vehicles.
Real life
- Because they were intended to fly too high and fast for safe use of conventional ejection seats, the Bell X-2, B-58 Hustler, XB-70 Valkyrie, F-111 and B‑1A Lancer all used enclosed escape crew capsules of some kind.
- A similar concept OSCAR (Optimum Survival Containment and Recovery), was intended for the Vought F-8 Crusader.
- The single submarine of the Soviet "Mike"-class, K-278 Komsomolets had an escape capsule, which was jettisoned upon its sinking in 1989. Other Soviet submarines like the Oscar-class are only rumored to have escape capsules. During the sinking of the Kursk, the crew was unable to reach it. Also the Typhoon-class is rumored to have escape pods located near or in the sail. Evidence for this can be found in a German documentary on the Typhoon-class submarine Severstal. The Shishumar class submarine has an IKL-designed integrated escape sphere. The sphere has accommodations for the entire crew with an eight-hour air supply.
Fiction
Escape pods are frequently depicted as being used by large spacecraft in science fiction, for example the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars, the Axiom in WALL-E, and the vessels of Starfleet in Star Trek. The 1981 film Lifepod and the 1993 TV film of the same name both revolve around such vehicles.
See also
- Lifeboat – Small boat carried on a ship for emergency evacuation
- Escape crew capsule – Aircraft crew escape system
- Launch escape system – A system to get the crew to safety if a rocket launch fails
- Apollo abort modes – Plans for mission abort during an Apollo spacecraft launch
- Space Shuttle abort modes – NASA Space Shuttle safety procedures
- Orion abort modes – Launch abort modes used by the Orion spacecraft
- Soyuz abort modes – Soyuz spacecraft emergency crew rescue systems
- Escape Pod – Science fiction podcastPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
References
- Naval Aviation News, July 1971
- https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/histories/naval-aviation/Naval%20Aviation%20News/1970/pdf/jul71.pdf
- ARG. "Shishumar Class Patrol Submarine - Military-Today.com". www.military-today.com. Archived from the original on January 27, 2009. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
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