NASA, in secret, launches 12 missions through the wormhole. Each landing pod had sufficient life support for two years, but with hypersleep chambers (which are used to slow the aging process of the human body), the astronauts could extend their observations over a decade or more.

Their mission was to assess their world and send reports back to Earth via a binary pings on an annual basis, giving a clue of which planet would be suitable for human colonization. When introduced to the mission, Cooper confirms that it would be impossible to rescue all twelve astronauts due to NASA's limited resources.

Of the twelve astronauts sent, three potentially habitable worlds were found: Miller's planet (a water world), Edmunds' planet (a desert world) and Mann's planet (an ice world).
They were named after the doctor who landed on the planet.