Baserat på dialogen i filmen (och mer detaljerat i novellering ) kan vi kontrollera att det finns två relästationer; en på vardera sidan av maskhålet. Den på Gargantua-sidan verkar inte kunna sända data tillbaka genom ormhålet, men det tar fortfarande emot information från planeten och från jorden. Eftersom de två sonderna fungerar som fyrkanter, behöver du inte breda ett meddelande genom maskhålet, du pekar helt enkelt på relästationen:
All were star fields which looked as if they had been photographed through a fish-eye lens.
“From the relay probe?” Cooper asked.
“It was in orbit around the wormhole,” Doyle confirmed. “Each time it swung around, we got images of the other side of the foreign galaxy.”
“Like swinging a periscope around,” Cooper said.
senare
“The lost communications came through,” Doyle informed them.
“How?” Brand asked.
“The relay on this side cached them,” he explained, as he continued to parse through it.
“Years of basic data,” he added. “No real surprises. Miller’s site has kept pinging thumbs up, as has Mann’s… but Edmunds went down three years ago.”
Det finns ingen tillförlitlig information i film eller roman för att förklara varför relästationen inte kunde skicka mer komplexa meddelanden tillbaka till jorden. Utrustningsfel verkar vara mest sannolikt orsak, eftersom "pingen" fortfarande vidarebefordras:
“No,” Doyle confirmed. “Data transmission back through the wormhole is rudimentary—simple binary ‘pings’ on an annual basis, to give some clue as to which worlds have potential.” He paused, then added, “One system shows promise.”