Star Trek: Every Auxiliary Craft Explained

For when a vessel needs to be evacuated, all Starfleet ships are equipped with enough escape pods to carry the entire crew.

Starfleet escape pods come in many different designs, but all are equipped with only the most minimal requirements to sustain their passengers. Some, like the kelvin pods from Star Trek Beyond, can only hold one person, while others, like the USS Saratoga's escape pods from the DS9 episode Emissary, could hold about twelve.

These small, cramped pods weren't designed to be lived in for very long. They had subspace transmitters that could be used to send a distress signal, and could typically land safely on planetary surfaces, where the occupants could await being rescued.

It was never mentioned on screen, but it's worth mentioning that the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual stated that the Enterprise-D's escape pods were capable of linking together, forming large arrays in order to pool resources.