Video: How NASA Uses Teamwork to Explore Solar System

To explore the universe, you can't go about it alone. As an agency, NASA only functions through teamwork—scientists and engineers collaborating in harmony. And as NASA wraps up its Cassini mission to Saturn, that has been especially evident.

The agency is about to embark on the final phase of the mission, to answer all unanswered questions about the ringed planet, and so for years, the scientific team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has collaborated with the navigation team to determine where to go to get the final pieces of information.

"It's really about turning an idea into a realizable concept," said Kelley Case, concept designs method chief of NASA's Team X. "While one person might have an idea, in order to make that idea become a mission, it takes a lot of people to do that, so it's really about putting all the right people in the room that can find that solution."

The solution is unusual: The Cassini probe will fly between the planet and the rings 22 times before entering into Saturn itself.

To learn more about how NASA uses teamwork, check out the video below from Wired: