 What is productivity? Well, in simplest terms, it's finding a better way, a quicker way, a less costly way to get the job done. Or it's making changes, both big and small, that will improve your work environment and boost your morale. Like better lighting or an upgraded computer, it's working smarter. How do employees feel about being involved in pets? Well, we asked some members about their participation, and this is what they said. It was a nice learning environment for me. Through the pet team, I was able to learn how to solve problems with the other people in my department, and I really enjoyed the group process. The benefit I get from the pet is more a feeling when you're at the meeting and you're talking about the project or whatever. You get this feeling like you're really doing something. It's made me more aware of the overall picture instead of just the little part of the job that I have to do. Launched high above the clouds and filtering atmosphere on February 14, 1980, the Solar Maximum Observatory is a source of very detailed information about the sun. For the first nine months of the planned two-year mission, the satellite collected spectacular new data. Hundreds of scientists gathered at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and had ground observatories around the world to study the sun and solar flares. Scientists made numerous discoveries and raised many new questions about the sun. Then in late 1980, three fuses failed in the Attitude Control Subsystem module. This meant that the satellite could no longer point precisely at the observation areas on the sun. Well, Seppy, what was the influence of Apollo and Shuttle on your program at that time? I think we can best answer that question if we walk up now to the Shuttle Bay trainer and take a look at our latest MMS spacecraft that's been delivered from the production line. Now that we're up here, Dutch, I think I can better explain the impact and the influences of both the Apollo and the Shuttle program had on our spacecraft architecture. Perhaps the most single critical dilemma that was posed to us in the early 70s was the dilemma of having to deal with how to shuttle eyes and make our spacecraft systems serviceable. Servicing and repairing unmanned satellites at space station. Robots constructing colonies for men and women to live and work together on the moon and the planet Mars. These are bold, complex space missions being considered by NASA for the 1990s and well into the 21st century. To support these spell-binding space adventures, NASA is directing an aggressive program in automation and robotics. One of the key NASA centers developing state-of-the-art robotics for space station freedom is NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center just outside of Washington, DC. Goddard will develop the flight tele-robotic servicer called FTS for short for space station freedom. Plans call for the FTS to assist the astronauts in the assembly of space station freedom. While FTS will be limited initially to spacecraft servicing and maintenance tasks, ultimately, it will be able to reach, retrieve, and service unmanned satellites in an unprecedented manner, saving millions of dollars. This slide involves the PIX-K study four, which was a lunar outpost of Mars evolutionary strategy that emphasized using the moon as testing it as a stepping stone in a place that's only three days from Earth and in terms of learning the experience of how to live and learn to work in an extraterrestrial environment and develop that as well as develop the leverage of the extraterrestrial resources. The key thing we looked at here was to what degree would the resources and the experience base of the moon give you capability and leverage your way to explore it onto Mars in contrast to case study two, which is a direct exploration of Mars from Earth. I think it's the first time we've set up a contrasting case on a system. I get excited when I hear John talk about building the ships because that's really what the program is all about. It's about exploration. And consequently, I'm very excited about my new assignment. NASA Update, brought to you by internal communications at NASA headquarters in Washington. Hello and welcome to NASA Update. After having to delay launch for 24 hours because of sheer winds at high altitudes, the space shuttle Atlantis lifted off pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center December 2nd just one minute before its launch window would have closed. And then after a classified four day, nine hour, and five minute mission, the Atlantis glided in for touchdown on runway 17 at Edwards Air Force Base in California at 6.36 PM Eastern Time Tuesday. Atlantis' Commander Hoot Gibson and pilot Guy Gardner tested the shuttle's newly designed brakes and nose wheel steering system during the landing. And finally, on December 5th, NASA celebrated Pioneer Venus II's 10th year circling the planet Venus. At NASA's Ames Research Center in California, there was cake and champagne in honor of the little spacecraft that could. And earlier at a news conference held to discuss the achievements of the Pioneer project, scientists stressed the parallels between the greenhouse effect on Venus, where surface temperatures are reported at 900 degrees, and the Earth. Dr. Donald Huntin said Venus is an allegory of what a future Earth could be. This is not just a chicken little running around and saying the sky is going to fall. It's something real, something we understand, something that can happen, and something that really does happen. And we should not ignore these warnings. There are times when there are chicken littles, of course, in environmental areas and other areas. But these two examples of stratospheric pollution and greenhouse effect are real. Those are not. The sky is falling. And that's it for this edition of NASA Update. I'm Jim Kikowski in Washington. Thanks for watching. See you next week. NASA Update is intended for internal agency use only.