The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $9,366 - Monday the 11th of May 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
  IGF::OT::IGF OTHER FUNCTION: VENDOR WILL CONTINUE A SEARCH FOR X-RAY AND UV/OPTICAL COUNTERPARTS OF UNASSOCIATED FERMI GAMMA-RAY SOURCES, WHICH ARE LIKELY TO BE NEW, EXCITING SOURCES. WE WILL ADD 199 NEW 2FGL UNASSOCIATED SOURCES TO THE SEARCH LIST. THESE DATA WILL DETERMINE THE BASIC PROPERTIES (WITH ~5 ARCSEC POSITIONS) OF ALL DETECTED X-RAY SOURCES IN THE FERMI-LAT LOCALIZATION CIRCLES, THUS ENABLING IDENTIFICATION, CLASSIFICATION AND FOLLOW-UP. THIS PROPOSAL SUPPORTS THE LARGE ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION TASK, WHICH WILL REQUIRE ADDITIONAL AUTOMATION OF DATA REDUCTION SOFTWARE. THE SWIFT PI AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE COMMIT TO THE REQUIRED SWIFT OBSERVING TIME. REDUCED DATA WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE ENTIRE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY ON A PUBLIC WEB PAGE.

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• $70,566 - Monday the 17th of November 2014
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
  IGF::OT::IGF OTHER FUNCTIONS: HYPERLUMINOUS X-RAY SOURCES (HLXS) WITH X-RAY LUMINOSITIES HAVE 1E42 ERG/S ARE VERY LIKELY THE LONG-SOUGHT INTERMEDIATE-MASS BLACK HOLES (IMBHS) OF 1E2-1E5 SOLAR MASSES, AS DEMONSTRATED BY THE RECENT INTENSIVE STUDIES OF HLX-1, THE ONLY HLX KNOWN SO FAR. TO BETTER STUDY THE HLX/IMBH POPULATIONS, WE HAVE SEARCHED FOR NEW HLXS ACROSS THE WHOLE SKY WITH THE ROSAT ALL SKY SURVEY (RASS), YEILDING A SAMPLE OF 10 NEW HLXS. HERE WE REQUEST 150KS TO OBSERVE FIVE HLXS WITH XMM/EPIC TO DETERMINE THE FINE SPECTRAL FEATURES ASSOCIATED ACCRETION STATES, AND TO STUDY THE CORRELATED SPECTRAL AND TIMING PROPERTIES IN HOPE TO ESTIMATE THE BLACK HOLE MASSES.

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• $69,837 - Monday the 21st of October 2013
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA HEADQUARTERS
  IGF::CL::IGF CLOSELY ASSOCIATED NRA AWARD ENTITLED: X-RAYING THE INTERGALACTIC OVI ABSORBERS THE OBSERVED INTERGALACTIC OVI ABSORBERS AT Z>0 HAVE BEEN REGARDED AS A SIGNIFICANT RESERVOIR OF THE ``MISSING BARYONS''. HOWEVER, TO FULLY UNDERSTAND HOW THESE ABSORBERS CONTRIBUTE TO THE BARYON INVENTORY, IT IS CRUCIAL TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE ABSORBING SYSTEMS ARE COLLISIONALLY IONIZED OR PHOTOIONIZED OR A COMBINATION OF BOTH. HIGHLY IONIZED X-RAY ABSORPTION LINES ARE BELIEVED TO BE USEFUL FOR FINDING THE MISSING BARYONS AND FOR PROBING THE NATURE OF THE OVI ABSORBERS. THIS EFFORT IS FOR A TWO-YEAR INVESTIGATION TO USE THE IDENTIFIED OVI SYSTEMS AT Z>0 AS TRACERS TO SEARCH FOR THE CORRESPONDING X-RAY ABSORPTIONS, AS A NATURAL EXTENT OF OUR PILOT INVESTIGATION THAT FOCUSED ON CHANDRA DATA. A COMBINATION OF XMM-NEWTON AND CHANDRA OBSERVATIONS WILL ENABLE DETECTION OF OVII WITH COLUMN DENSITY SIGNIFICANCE. THIS EFFORT WILL PRIMARILY INVESTIGATE WHETHER OR NOT THESE OVI SYSTEMS ARE COLLISIONALLY IONIZED, AND TO CONSTRAIN THE BARYON MASS CONTAINED IN THE OVI ABSORBERS. THE RESULTS OF THIS INVESTIGATION WILL HAVE IMPORTANT IMPLICATIONS REGARDING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE CURRENT BARYON INVENTORY AND WILL ALSO DIRECTLY CONFRONT THE NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF LARGE STRUCTURE FORMATION IN THE LOCAL UNIVERSE. THE PROPOSED INVESTIGATION IS DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO ONE OF THE NASA STRATEGIC GOALS AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: "DISCOVER THE ORIGIN, STRUCTURE, EVOLUTION, AND DESTINY OF THE UNIVERSE, AND SEARCH FOR EARTH-LIKE PLANETS.".

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• $53,755 - Saturday the 1st of December 2012
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA HEADQUARTERS
  IGF::OT::IGF OTHER FUNCTIONS THE FOCUS OF THIS CONTRACT IS TO PERFORM CONSISTENT ANALYSES OF CONSISTENT SETS OF ARCHIVAL X-RAY OBSERVATIONS OF PULSARS WHICH HAVE ACCURATE, HIGH QUALITY PARALLAX MEASUREMENTS. PROPOSAL TITLE: STUDYING CORRELATIONS IN X-RAY EMISSIONS FROM PULSARS USING CONSISTENT ANALYSES AND ACCURATE DISTANCES A PULSAR'S DISPERSION MEASURE (DM) IS THE STANDARD WAY OF DETERMINING THE DISTANCE TO A PULSAR. HOWEVER, THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT UNCERTAINTIES IN THE MODELS USED LEADING TO POTENTIALLY QUITE LARGE DISTANCE ERRORS. IN ADDITION, STUDIES OF GALACTIC GAMMA-RAY SOURCES AND RADIO IMAPN2 OF THE GALACTIC PLANE HAVE DISCOVERED MANY INTERESTING PULSARS WITH NO DETECTED RADIO PULSE. THE CORRELATION BETWEEN TOTAL NON-THERMAL X-RAY LUMINOSITY, INCLUDING PULSED NEBULAR EMISSION, AND SPIN-DOWN POWER HAS BEEN INVESTIGATED IN SEVERAL STUDIES, AND DESPITE LARGE DISPERSIONS IN THE DATA, IS OFTEN USED AS A WAY OF DETERMINING DISTANCE. SOMETIMES EVEN IN CASES WHERE THERE IS A DISCREPANT DM DISTANCE. THESE STUDIES HAVE GENERALLY BEEN LIMITED BY UNCERTAINTIES IN THE DISTANCES TO THE PULSAR USED FOR THE CORRELATION STUDIES AND OFTEN THEY USE MEASUREMENTS TAKEN FROM THE LITERATURE FROM VARIOUS INSTRUMENTS USING DIVERSE ANALYSIS METHODS. SIMILARLY, AN X-RAY MEASURED TEMPERATURE AND THERMAL FLUX CAN OFTEN BE MEASURED FROM THE SURFACE OF A NEUTRON STAR. GIVEN A DISTANCE THIS CAN IN PRINCIPLE BE USED TO DETERMINE THE RADIUS OF EMISSION FROM THE SURFACE, OR CONVERSELY BE USED TO LIMIT THE DISTANCE GIVEN A REASONABLE ESTIMATE OF THE EMISSION RADIUS. HOWEVER, THIS CAN BE HIGHLY DEPENDENT ON THE PARTICULAR NEUTRON STAR ATMOSPHERE MODEL USED AND THE ASSUMED EQUATION OF STATE. HERE WE PROPOSE TO PERFORM CONSISTENT ANALYSES OF CONSISTENT SETS OF ARCHIVAL X-RAY OBSERVATIONS OF PULSARS WHICH HAVE ACCURATE, HIGH QUALITY PARALLAX MEASUREMENTS IN ORDER TO OBTAIN AN IMPROVED SPIN-DOWN TO X-RAY LUMINOSITY CORRELATION AND TO DETERMINE IF A CONSISTENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEASURED THERMAL TEMPERATURE, FLUX AND DISTANCE CAN BE DETERMINED. THIS PROGRAM DIRECTLY ADDRESSES THE SOLICITATION'S OBJECTIVE TO USE NASA SPACE ASTROPHYSICS ARCHIVAL DATA IN THE INVESTIGATION OF COLLAPSED OBJECTS.

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• $36,610 - Saturday the 1st of December 2012
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA HEADQUARTERS
  IGF::OT::IGF OTHER FUNCTIONS: NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT AWARD. THE PURPOSE OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO CONSTRUCT A SAMPLE OF 21 MASSIVE CLUSTERS FROM THE SDSS-C4 BIASED TO X-RAY SELECTED CLUSTERS. STUDIES OF GALAXY CLUSTERS ARE IMPORTANT FOR BOTH COSMOLOGY AND THE FORMATION OF BARYONIC STRUCTURES. AN IMPORTANT RELATION IN CLUSTER SCIENCE IS THE GAS MASS - MASS RELATION. ITS MEAN RELATION, SCATTER AND EVOLUTION IS THE KEY FOR USING THE X-RAY DATA OF GALAXY CLUSTERS TO DO PRECISION COSMOLOGY. HOWEVER, THE CLUSTER SAMPLES USED TO CONSTRAIN THIS RELATION ARE X-RAY SELECTED AND THE CURRENT X-RAY DATA IN THE ARCHIVES ARE ALSO HEAVILY BIASED TO X-RAY SELECTED CLUSTERS. TO ADDRESS THIS IMPORTANT BIAS, WE CONSTRUCT A SAMPLE OF 21 MOST MASSIVE CLUSTERS FROM THE SDSS-C4 CLUSTER CATALOG, WITHOUT ANY X-RAY SELECTION CRITERIA. ABOUT HALF OF THEM HAVE BEEN OBSERVED BY XMM OR CHANDRA BEFORE OUR PROJECT BUT THEY ARE ALL X-RAY LUMINOUS, WHILE THE OTHER CLUSTERS IN OUR SAMPLE ARE X-RAY FAINT. WE HAVE SUCCESSFUL XMM PROPOSALS APPROVED TO BEGIN TO COLLECT THE DATA FOR THESE PRESUMABLY X-RAY FAINT, MASSIVE CLUSTERS. ALTHOUGH THE CURRENT SAMPLE IS SMALL, ANY CONFIRMATION OF AN X-RAY FAINT, MASSIVE CLUSTER HAS POTENTIALLY IMPORTANT IMPLICATIONS ON THE CLUSTER MASS - PROXY RELATIONS.

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• $20,456 - Saturday the 1st of December 2012
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
  IGF::OT::IGF OTHER FUNCTIONS: UNDERSTANDING THE EVOLUTION OF GALAXIES AND THE LARGE SCALE STRUCTURE IN WHICH THEY ARE EMBEDDED IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TOPICS IN ASTROPHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY. CURRENT EFFORTS TO STUDY THE PROPERTIES OF GALAXIES AT HIGH REDSHIFT RELY ON TWO DISTINCT SAMPLES: LYMAN-BREAK GALAXIES&LY-A EMITTERS. LBGS ARE SELECTED VIA DEEP WIDE-BAND PHOTOMETRY, IDENTIFIED BY THE "LYMAN LIMIT" CONTINUUM BREAK THAT APPEARS AT REST FRAME 912 A [79][80][55]. LAES ARE SELECTED BY EITHER NARROW-BAND IMAGING [20][69][70][1][32][93], OR BLIND SPECTROSCOPY [53][73] TUNED TO DETECT LY-A LINE EMISSION REDSHIFTED INTO THE OPTICAL. OVER THE PAST DECADE DISCOVERY OF SIGNIFICANT SAMPLES OF LBGS AND LAES HAVE DRIVEN STUDIES OF STAR-FORMING GALAXIES AT Z>2.

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• $15,933 - Friday the 7th of November 2014
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
  IGF::CT::IGF CRITICAL FUNCTIONS - DECIPHERING CLUSTER OBSERVABLES: TRACING THE BARYONS IN CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES TO PROVIDE OBSERVATIONS OF MODERATE-REDSHIFT OPTICALLY-SELECTED CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES. THIS PROPOSAL REQUESTS FUNDING FOR TWO( 2) SUZAKU AO-5 OBSERVATIONS OF MODERATE-REDSHIFT OPTICALLY-SELECTED CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES. THESE OBSERVATIONS HAVE THREE (3) MAIN OBJECTIVES. THE FIRST IS TO QUANTIFY SYSTEMATIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WELL MATCHED (IN REDSHIFT AND VELOCITY DISPERSION) X-RAY AND OPTICALLY SELECTED CLUSTER SAMPLES. WE WILL MEASURE THE X-RAY LUMINOSITIES AND TEMPERATURES OF THESE CLUSTERS, ALLOWING US TO COMPARE THE PROPERTIES OF THESE OBJECTS WITH STANDARD CLUSTER SCALING RELATIONS. WE ALSO EXPECT TO OBTAIN ROUGH MASSES AND ABUNDANCE MEASUREMENTS. OUR SECOND GOAL IS TO COMPARE X-RAY AND DYNAMICAL MASS ESTIMATES OF OUR TARGETS. DYNAMICAL MASSES WILL BE DERIVED FROM IN-HAND VELOCITY DISPERSION MEASUREMENTS. FINALLY, WE WILL ALSO USE THESE DATA TO CALIBRATE OPTICAL RICHNESS AS A MASS OBSERVABLE AND INVESTIGATE ITS SCATTER. THE TOTAL TIME FOR THE TWO OBSERVATIONS IS 134 KSEC. UNDERSTANDING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN BARYONS IN GALAXY CLUSTERS AND UNDERLYING DARK MATTER DISTRIBUTIONS IS CRUCIAL FOR USING CLUSTERS AS COSMOLOGICAL PROBES. RECENT WORK INDICATES MASSIVE LOW-LX CLUSTERS AT ALL REDSHIFTS, IN CONFLICT WITH SELF-SIMILARITY PREDICTIONS. THE ONLY WAY TO QUANTIFY THESE FINDINGS IS TO OBSERVE A SAMPLE CHOSEN INDEPENDENTLY OF X-RAY PROPERTIES. WE PROPOSE TO STUDY 13 CLUSTERS AT 0.15
• $15,775 - Monday the 5th of December 2011
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
  ROBERTS, MALLORY NAMED PI PROPOSAL NUMBER 55570 ENTITLED "PULSE SEARCHES OF PROBABLE GEV PULSARS ASSOCIATED WITH TEV SOURCES." THIS IS FOR THE XMM-NEWTON AO-8 CYCLE AND AO-6 C-TARGET. DR. ROBERTS WILL HAVE PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE X-RAY DATA REDUCTION AND ANALYSIS, FOR COORDINATING MULTI-WAVELENGTH EFFORTS, AND DUPLICATION OF RESULTS. THIS OBSERVATION IS PART OF HIS WORK TO PREPARE FOR THE NEW GENERATION OF GAMMA-RAY SATELLITES BY PROVIDING AS MUCH INFORMATION AS POSSIBLE ON POTENTIAL GAMMA-RAY SOURCES.

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