I think the MER project is THE most wildly succesful robotic mission ever. Period. I had almost zero expectation that both rovers would even survive landing- I just had my fingers crossed hoping that one would make it...

This has been as close to a flawless mission as one could possibly hope for. (I am not saying it was easy, mind you- I am sure there have been many problems that have required damn hard work and technical brilliance to overcome).

I do hope that NASA studies the MERs incredible success and makes a point to learn fro its success. I know next to nothing about the project behind the scenes but I am willing to bet the success can be traced to:
1) The people chosen to work on this project at all levels.
2) Management that listened to and respected those doing the design and building of the rovers.

I am not a manager but I have seen enough to know that if you get people that believe strongly in a project and then give them freedom to do what they think is best you get better work out of them than you ever could hope for. Treating people like automatons that must do work according to a regimented schedule may look good on paper but it is ultimately self defeating. Threatening or punishing people that do good work when they make a human mistake will only make them feel insecure and resentful. It greatly reduces your employee's effectiveness.

I can think of about dozens times where I have been faced with serious problems with a system that I kept banging away at to no avail... when I reach a point on a problem where I am trying the same set of solutions over and over and it isnt working, I have learned the solution is to walk away and do something to distract yourself with something fun to get out of the mental rut you got into. So I often will abandon a problem to go walk outside... My walk starts with just enjoying the view, but then I start thinking about the problem in a new light. So far it has been a very successful strategy. It works more often than not...Yet how many companies tolerate employees just walking off....? It would profit a lot of companies to let employees just take time off to walk around and shift their thought processes out of the rut.... Distraction is the best catalyst for creative thought.

Nearly all my best ideas have come from taking breaks and relaxing.