Lazarus Missions (from Interstellar)

[KAL 9000]

The Lazarus missions were missions for preliminary scouting of a planet. What I don't get is: Why didn't they send probes, and why would they just abandon the astronauts?

[Mitchz95]

Because otherwise we wouldn't have a story.

[tater]

Because the movie was absurd?

[sevenperforce]

1 hour ago, KAL 9000 said:

The Lazarus missions were missions for preliminary scouting of a planet. What I don't get is: Why didn't they send probes, and why would they just abandon the astronauts?

I only watched it once, but IIRC the explanation had something to do with how only very simple signals could be sent back through the wormhole. A probe wouldn't be able to send back a large data stream, and presumably they couldn't trust a probe to make a full evaluation of all the criteria for habitability and send back a yes/no signal. So they sacrificed three astronauts instead. 

Of course, the fact that they have artificially intelligent talking walking robots that could almost certainly make as good or better an assessment as a human kinda clashes with this explanation. Plus, they landed on all three worlds anyway, so what was the point? 

[AngelLestat]

33 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Plus, they landed on all three worlds anyway, so what was the point? 

There were 12 lazarus missions, Gargantua system had 3 potential worlds.. so they went to that place.

I agree with the rest of your explanation..  If the future of all mankind was in play..  then you should take any risk.
In the movie dr mann said that survival instinct is something that machines "could not learn", that is why they sent astronauts, also it is clear looking in their robot designs that there were things that those machines would not be able to do in the same way as a human does.
But well, is part of the plot of the movie. 

[sevenperforce]

14 minutes ago, AngelLestat said:

There were 12 lazarus missions, Gargantua system had 3 potential worlds.. so they went to that place.

I agree with the rest of your explanation..  If the future of all mankind was in play..  then you should take any risk.
In the movie dr mann said that survival instinct is something that machines "could not learn", that is why they sent astronauts, also it is clear looking in their robot designs that there were things that those machines would not be able to do in the same way as a human does.
But well, is part of the plot of the movie. 

Ah, yes, I forgot there were 12.

Those robots weren't very anthropomorphic, but they were quite capable...I find it hard to believe they would not have been able to at least assess basic habitability.

[Wjolcz]

As far as I remeber Michael Caine's character said that there were at least few solar sysyems they had access to and they sent a few probes to each of them.

And of course, we could watch some robots walking around and pushing buttons, but would that be enjoyable? They probably wouldn't even need to walk and be stationary instead, and we could have 90 minutes of beeping and booping, flashing lights and machines talking to each other in binary. Would that be enjoyable?

It was a film. Films aren't realistic if they're meant to be fun or enjoyable. I'm not going to cinema tomorrow to check if all those ballistic trajectories in Deadpool are correct.

[AngelLestat]

1 hour ago, sevenperforce said:

Ah, yes, I forgot there were 12.

Those robots weren't very anthropomorphic, but they were quite capable...I find it hard to believe they would not have been able to at least assess basic habitability.

But I was answering the question from the movie perspective, of course is a plot. 
In any case why they didn't sent the astronauts with the tools to make their own food, an inflatable module with 25 m3 will be enough to keep an astronaut feed all the time they wanted planting its own food.  That plus its food reserves will give it a more long survival expectancy.

[kerbiloid]

Because when they were reporting, there were no words, only gestures and emotions.
So, robot reports were empty at all.

Edited February 12, 2016 by kerbiloid

[p1t1o]

They should have sent [a poet?] Matt Damon. hehueheuhehehuehe

Edited February 12, 2016 by p1t1o
can't word properlied.

[YNM]

Otherwise you won't have the story of family connection between father and daughter.

If anything, maybe they worry that the robots would abandon them on the ol' Earth ? They (anyone who took the mission) do know of plan B.

 

Edited February 12, 2016 by YNM

[kerbiloid]

Btw indeed. Near the end of the film they tell us something like "the love told you to come here and get the info about the world salvation".

And how that robots can love?!

[fredinno]

8 hours ago, p1t1o said:

They should have sent [a poet?] Matt Damon. hehueheuhehehuehe

They did.

[p1t1o]

On 2/12/2016 at 6:12 PM, fredinno said:

They did.

Eff me, I forgot Matt Damon was in it!

Now I look like a fool. THANKS MATT.

[Kertech]

They did send probes which is how they knew there were planets beyond