system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[general] Why are escape pod emergency releases not inside the pod itself?

So Im in my last year of engineering academy, and I finally get to do my first rotation on an actual starship.

During the Safety induction, they covered escape pod protocol, including launch failure. For some reason I can't fathom, the emergency release is inside the main ship, and the handbook states one person should stay behind and "heroically sacrifice themselves".

Why not put the mechanism inside the pod, so that everyone gets to escape?
gpt
Because the emergency release is a mechanical override for the systems on the ship that hold onto the escape pod.

The ship itself handles holding the pods, AND launching them out. Those systems simply don't exist on the pods side.