Vicker's Quarters from Prometheus

It doesn't seem that likely. If we consider the lifeboat that Ripley had, in the following century, surely the engines could start the lifeboat towards earth (you don't need to keep the engines firing to keep moving one you're in open space). while sending out a distress signal (come get me). That's why its called a lifeboat, not simply a back up ship. On the ocean, a lifeboat will have oars and maybe a small outboard. It'll get you off the Titanic, but you won't get to New York unless another ship picks you up. I liked the use of the engines to try to slow the Liefboats fall, which it didn't do all that well, but it probably wasn't imagined to be used that way, ejecting relatively low over the planets surface, as opposed to further out - a bit like a low altitude ejection from a fighter jet, there's so little time for the parachute to deploy and do its job, that you're not going to have a gentle landing. There's no reason to believe that Shaw thinks the squid is still alive after she hit the "purge button" on the MedPod. She may not have expected it to be a problem when she got into the lifeboat. (and to be honest, she'd enough distractions). Also, there were two lifeboats, so it could have been the other one for all she knew. The big question about Vicker's lifeboat is this. Why is her father's medpod in it at all? Weyland spent two years in stasis in the other lifeboat, as we find out AFTER Shaw has her squid removed. He says he has only a few days left in him. So why is his medpod not in the same lifeboat. I can only imagine that this illogical plot device is simply to help Shaw survive to the end of the film. The only reason she knows there's a top of the range MedPod on board is because she sees it in Vickers Quarters, and while Vickers isn't inclined to explain herself to mere employees, the fact is there doesn't seem to be any good explanation anyway, even when we figure out it's for her Dad. It saves Shaw, and takes up space in her lifeboat, which is fitted out with a piano, bar, and giant TV screen. Perhaps her dad's priorities for his lifeboat included a jaccuzi and so he'd no room left over, and put the Medpod in his daughter's lifeboat? I hardly think those are his priorities.