What does this sort of modeling look like? I guess I kind of naively assumed there were people gathering information on the current state, collecting different

What does this sort of modeling look like? I guess I kind of naively assumed there were people gathering information on the current state, collecting different ways to get the astronauts back with detailed cost/benefit, quantification of risk, etc. and then some executive was collecting this to make a decision. I mean I'm sure that's still happening to some degree but this process of modeling sounds a lot more formal.