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Personell Escape Pod Drop Pod Mk3 [Vanilla, Survival Ready, No Mods]

The mark 3 revision of a small planetary droppod for a single person. Survival ready, Vanilla and no Mods.

The "Personell DropPod Mk3" blueprint aims to create an automated and small, cheap but reliable escape pod, suited for planetary landings in atmospheres. The pod tries to find a healthy balance between lightweight and redundancy, with the most important systems having backups. It relies on depolyment speed and a small silhouette rather than heavy armor, although it is designed to safely deliver its passenger even when damaged.

Features:
- Automated launch system
- Connector block
- 2 redundant parachute hatches (no auto-deployment while not in operation)
- 3 redundant batteries
- 3 redundant escape thrusters
- 2 redundant gyroscops
- All redundant systems distributed across the chassis to minimize the chance of a single impact compromising functionality
- Emergency beacon
- Oxygen tank (refill via connector)
- Deployment system does not rely on shipboard systems (ie gravity generators) in case of a shipwide power failure
- Flat underside for easy relocation via tug ship
- Secondary external deployment button
- Easy access to cockpit storage area and oxygen supply meter
- Energy saving mode (does not unpower connected ship when activated)

Controls:
1 - Activate/deactivate batterys
2 - Automated launch
3 - Deactivate controls for freefall
4 - Manual parachute release

6 - Switch connector locking state for easy connection to ship
7 - decrease beacon broadcast range
8 - increase beacon broadcast range
9 - activate/deactivate SOS beacon

Use a tug ship (grab by the underside), move to a suitable connector (preferrably connected to oxygen supply) aboard the ship you intend to use, get inside the pods cockpit, connect with [6], save power with [1] (this is important, because using the turn-off-battery hotkey would deactivate the connected ship/station too), the pod will still stay connected as long as the shipside connector is powered. Done!

Launch via [1] and [2], adapt flight vector if needed, deactivate controls with [3], wait for parachute deployment or deploy manually with [4]. Beacon is off by default in case you dont want to be seen.

For hot-zone landings, it is recommended to deactivate the automated parachute release and perform a manual halo drop (a dangerous manouver which involves opening the parachute as close to the ground as possible to minimize the time exposed to anti air fire). Due to the low cost of a single pod, it might be helpful to launch multiple pods at once or deploy decoys if heavy enemy fire is unavoidable.

Considering the possibility of a power failure of the attached ship, it is helpful to power up the pods batteries before combat, so the pod stays in place (only one side of the connector needs to be powered). Remember to turn them off afterwards or charge them through the connector.

No refunds!