NASA had to wait until it had received all the proposals for the mission before it appointed the members of the working group to be sure they had no conflict of interest. The aspiring, perspiring space scientist, however, no longer sits down by himself or herself to compose a fifty-page proposal. Instead, he or she assembles a large team of co-investigators to write individual parts of, and increase the credibility of, the proposal. Foreign scientists join the team to furnish part of the instrument and handle some of the data analysis. This reduces the cost of the instrument thereby making it more attractive to a program office trying to keep the overall cost of the mission down.
Industrial subcontractors help prepare the proposal.
178 NASA calls on a contractor to assemble the working group who will evaluate and place the proposals in the usual four categories. A Headquarters scientist uses the recommendations of the working group to select the teams to participate in the mission. NASA's selection process continues to work. Generally, superior scientists are selected, their instruments perform well, and they make scientific discoveries. Scientists who are not selected occasionally protest the decision to the associate administrator for the Office of Space Science.