@Almost I kinda had the same feeling about the robots when i first saw them but after you see them in action you can see that they kinda work. Weird design though. :heart: Tars.
The planet was made up of frozen clouds. The surface was a lie. Dr Mann made up the surface of that planet and faked the data so that he would eventually get picked for having the “best” planet for building a new human colony. He then executed his plan to take their ship to another planet that actually had a chance of sustaining life. If his plan worked, he would have survived as well. He was pretty selfish.
I’m pretty sure they said that it he was the best pilot for this mission and that he had been training for it most of his life. At the start when he has that nightmare. That was one of the test flights for the Lazarus missions but for some reason their was a gravitational anomaly, similar to the one in his house, that stopped him from completing the test. Also, when he is at the school speaking to Murph’s teachers they say that most of the engineers, pilots etc… are not needed any more because all the world needs at the moment are farmers. NASA was also disbanded but kept alive in secret. I’m not sure if they would have been able to train more pilots for the flight.