Shuttlepods
Shuttlepods are small vehicles that are used for very short range missions, generally for ship-to-surface, ship-to-ship, or station-to-ship transportation of personnel or very small quantities of cargo. They are generally limited to sublight flight and are not suited for missions of more than a day, though they rarely approach even this limit.
Type-1 Travel Pod
The travel pod was introduced over a century ago as an orbital transfer vehicle. These travel pods are designed to only operate in the orbit of a planet and are not capable of successfully landing on or taking off from a planet's surface. The pod is primarily used for personnel transfer between ships and stations located in a planet's orbital environment but due to the large open area in the pods interior, it can also be used to transfer cargo. Travel pods are boxy craft with a rounded forward end. The forward end of the pod is dominated by a large viewport that gives the pilot and passengers an unobstructed view. The aft end of the craft is taken up by the aft hatch and docking ring. The docking ring allows the pod to dock with the docking ports built into the stations and ships. The pods are equipped with large floodlights along the front end of the pod that were located just below the viewport. The pods are also equipped with an array of RCS thrusters for flight control and also act as the pod's primary propulsion system. The pods had an emergency hatch built into the ventral surface of the pod's hull.
The interior of the pod is a single compartment with the control console at the forward end of the compartment. This console is set up with the standard pilot and copilot arrangement but the pod could and most often was operated by a single pilot. There are also two benches of passenger seating located along the port and starboard bulkheads.
Type-4 Shuttlepod
The Type-4 Shuttlepod is a common orbital shuttle employed in shipyards and within starbases. It has a small passenger compartment that can seat up to four people or carry a small amount of cargo. It was developed primarily, however, as a yard tug, and as such it has a powerful tractor beam emitter on its stern, under the entry hatch. With this, it can help starships dock, though with modern berthing systems it has become much less necessary at the Federation's more sophisticated bases. It has engines that are substantially stronger than are necessary for a craft of its size, so as to help it with this additional duty, and as such it straddles the line between being a shuttle pod and being a utility craft.
These craft are suited for ground-to-orbit or orbital transfer missions only and don't have the range for even inter-system travel, due to their limited life support systems. They are almost never deployed aboard starships, as they have limited deep-space utility.
Type-15/15a/16 Shuttlepod
Introduced in the 2340s, the Type-15 series shuttlepod was intended to be a low-maintenance and compact supplement to the Type-5 personnel shuttle, for short ground-to-orbit and ship-to-ship duties. They are ubiquitous throughout the Federation despite their age, because of the low intensity of their mission parameters. There are technically three types of this pod, based on the specific engine systems installed and their cabin layout: Type-15 shuttlepods have a capacity of two, Type-15A shuttlepods have a crew of two with extended range for missions of up to 12 hours, and Type-16 shuttles have a capacity of four, but they are all identical on the outside and are generally treated as the same type of shuttle.
The cockpit is generally configured with two seats in all variants, and the area behind this can either be used for cargo space, passengers, or extra fuel. Gull-wing doors allow access to the interior and the aft compartment has a door that lifts up. These craft are unarmed and unshielded, other than a basic navigational deflector that protects them from interstellar debris and provides heat shielding for landing on planets.
Type-17 Shuttlepod
Introduced in the 2360s, the Type-17 shuttlepod is substantially more sophisticated than the Type-15 series, but is a step down from the Type-6 shuttle. It is the first type of shuttlepod equipped with warp drive, and at the time of its introduction, it was the fastest vessel of its size, capable of short independent missions away from its mothership. It is often posted to small starships and outposts, which otherwise wouldn't be able to support larger warp-capable shuttles. It is one of the most common shuttles on Federation civilian and auxiliary vessels as well because it's such a good balance of size and utility. Most Starfleet ships tend to embark personnel shuttles such as the Type-8, instead, as their capabilities are greater without being much larger.
Like its smaller cousin, it has two gull-wing doors above the warp nacelles that lead to a cockpit with two stations, along with aft seating for four, or cargo space. It has an emergency transporter and shielding systems, but it is generally unarmed.
Type-18 Shuttlepod
The Type-18 shuttlepod is a small warp-capable craft developed alongside the Type-10 shuttle for classes of starship like the Saber and Defiant to provide a hardened craft for use in situations where a small armed vessel is necessary. It is a cramped vessel with space for just two people, but it is highly maneuverable and has better range than its earlier cousins. It has a microtorpedo launcher mounted on the top of the hull, as well as several phaser emitters, along with ablative armor and relatively powerful shields for a ship of its size.
