The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $106,027 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  THE SEARCH FOR LIFE IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM IS BASED ON UNDERSTANDING ANALOGOUS ENVIRONMENTS ON OUR OWN PLANET THAT MAY HAVE HOSTED THE EMERGENCE OF LIFE. THUS, THE QUESTION OF THE ORIGIN OF LIFE CAN BE APPROACHED AS A GEOCHEMICAL QUESTION TO DETERMINE ENVIRONMENTAL HABITABILITY (I.E., WHAT ENVIRONMENTS MEET THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR LIFE): AN AQUEOUS (LIQUID WATER) ENVIRONMENT, AVAILABLE MOLECULAR BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LIFE, AND A SOURCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENERGY. SUBMARINE HYDROTHERMAL ENVIRONMENTS MEET THESE GEOCHEMICAL REQUIREMENTS AND MAY HAVE HOSTED THE EMERGENCE OF LIFE ON EARTH. RELATIVELY LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT THE NATURE OF EARLY LIFE ON EARTH, FROM THE FIRST METABOLIC PATHWAYS TO THE TEMPERATURES OF ITS EMERGENCE. RECENTLY, ORGANISMS SUCH AS THE HYPERTHERMOPHILIC ARCHAEON, METHANOPYRUS KANDLERI (STRAIN 116), ISOLATED FROM DEEP SEA HYDROTHERMAL VENTS, HAVE RECENTLY BEEN FOUND TO GROW IN ENVIRONMENTS WITH TEMPERATURES UP TO 122 C (TAKAI ET AL., 2008). TERRESTRIAL EXTREMOPHILES HAVE CAUSED US TO RECONSIDER THE BROADER ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS THAT MAY HOST LIFE. ANALOGOUS HABITABLE ENVIRONMENTS MAY EXIST ON OTHER SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES SUCH AS MARS AND EUROPA. THE NEED TO ACCURATELY MODEL AND UNDERSTAND REACTIONS AMONG ORGANIC COMPOUNDS AND BIOMOLECULES HAS LED TO A NUMBER OF EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES TO DETERMINE THE THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES OF THESE COMPOUNDS. UNFORTUNATELY, THERE IS A PAUCIY OF DATA FOR IMPORTANT COMPOUNDS AT HIGH TEMPERATURES AND PRESSURES. EXPERIMENTALLY DETERMINED VOLUMETRIC PROPERTIES OF AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS AT ELEVATED CONDITIONS WILL PROVIDE DIRECT TESTS OF CURRENT ESTIMATION METHODS AND AID IN THE REFINEMENT OF THESE METHODS. THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO DEVELOP A THERMODYNAMIC DATABASE OF AQUEOUS ORGANIC MIXTURES AT HIGH TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THE METABOLIC PROCESSES OF THERMOPHILIC ORGANISMS AND AID DEVELOPMENT OF A MORE ACCURATE GEOCHEMICAL MODEL FOR THE ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AQUEOUS ENVIRONMENTS.

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