I was on something called Team X at NASA as a student member one summer. Team X consists of senior experts in all fields that relate to a spacecraft mission at NASA. Everyone sits is a designated chair--I took the "Risk" chair. At my side was a senior scientist occupying the Risk spot for that mission's Team X. The room is lined with clocks. Every second counts. Constant deadlines and decisions and ideas and solutions, and the team functions like a dream come true. I may never be on such an amazing team again, but what this article elucidates is the confidence an astronaut has in the command team sitting on Earth. Missions go through rounds of Team X evaluation until deemed perfected before the mission can proceed towards actual eventual launch. I was on a comet lander design project. The guy out there working with a drill had a NASA control team and he would know that whatever his problem, the odds of a fast solution are astronomically high in his favor. Even now, when I am doing something that seems impossible, I say to myself, what would I do to fix this if I were back at Jet Propulsion Lab, and then I solve the problem.
