Is it really necessary to send humans to those places just to get the knock-on benefits? Couldn’t we do those things directly, without going there?

It seems to me that, today, those who have the money to spend on these endeavors would only do so if there were perceived short-term benefits to themselves. That means they plan to exploit the resources, or increase their own power somehow.

I know the good engineers that make this happen are doing it for the challenge and in the pursuit of knowledge, and I know that’s why we poors support it, but that doesn’t “pay the bills.” What is the motivation behind the money? Why are they really doing this?

  • pulsewidth@lemmy.world
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    1 hour ago

    Interstellar is just a movie, mate. There is no such planet, time passes at the same rate everywhere - ie the caesium standard.

    Time dilation is a thing, but as far as I’m aware it’s not possible to travel someplace, pass any greater amount of time, and then return as though less time had passed - that’s time travel. It’s theoretically impossible, at least with current technology and understanding of relativity. Great movie though.

    • illi@sh.itjust.works
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      5 minutes ago

      As far as we know, traveling through time backwards is impossible.

      Traveling through time forwards is very much possible though - in fact we are doing exactly that right now!

    • Cousin Mose@lemmy.hogru.ch
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      38 minutes ago

      I didn’t get the idea from the movie, I’m talking about how time passes differently depending on the pull of gravity; and that’s why I kind of alluded to this being theoretical at best. I don’t actually think it’s feasible to find an enormous planet just to have time pass more quickly.