The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $749,463 - Tuesday the 22nd of July 2014
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  IGF::OT::IGF OTHER FUNCTION - PARAGON SPACE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION? (PARAGON) PROPOSES TO CONTINUE OUR INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF MICROPOROUS-IONOMER MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE THE ROBUSTNESS AND EFFECTIVENESS AND SIMPLIFY WATER RECOVERY PROCESSES FOR SPACE APPLICATIONS. IMPROVED ROBUSTNESS AND EFFECTIVENESS WILL BE EVIDENT THROUGH (1) REDUCED LOADING ON THE DOWNSTREAM POST PROCESSOR DUE TO THE IONOMER?S UNIQUE PROPERTY OF SELECTIVE PERMEABILITY, (2) NEAR COMPLETE REMOVAL OF WATER FROM WASTEWATER, AND (3) INCLUSION OF A BACKUP BARRIER BETWEEN THE RETENTATE AND PERMEATE. THE TECHNOLOGY OFFERS SIMPLIFICATION OVER EXISTING TECHNOLOGY THROUGH (1) A LOWER DEPENDENCY ON MOVING PARTS, AND (2) INTEGRATED CAPTURE OF WASTEWATER SOLUTES FOR DISPOSAL. PHASE 1 TESTING SHOWED THAT 99% OF THE CONTAMINANTS IN CONCENTRATED PRETREATED URINE ERSATZ WERE REMOVED BY THE PROPOSED TECHNOLOGY AND VIRTUALLY COMPLETE DEWATERING OF THE BRINE WAS ACHIEVED IN A CONFIGURATION THAT WOULD APPEAR TO BE INSENSITIVE TO GRAVITY AND ORIENTATION. AS THE TECHNOLOGY IS FULLY DEVELOPED, IT CAN BE INSERTED INTO EXISTING AND/OR DEVELOPING WATER RECOVERY SYSTEM ARCHITECTURES TO INCREASE WATER RECOVERY RATES BEYOND THAT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE TO DATE. THE APPLICATION OF THIS TECHNOLOGY FOR SPACECRAFT WATER RECLAMATION WILL BE REFERENCED AS IWP (IONOMER-MEMBRANE WATER PROCESSOR).

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• $50,000 - Tuesday the 23rd of July 2013
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  AN INFLATABLE HABITAT IS A PRESSURE VESSEL WITH FLEXIBLE SHELL. NOTABLE FEATURES SUCH AS LOW WEIGHT, LARGE INFLATED OPERATIONAL VOLUME, AND SMALL PRE-DEPLOYMENT VOLUME OFFER SIGNIFICANT ADVANTAGES OVER TRADITIONAL RIGID METALLIC AND COMPOSITE HABITAT STRUCTURES. CONVENTIONAL DESIGNS SUFFER FROM INDETERMINACY OF LOAD SHARING BETWEEN MERIDIONAL AND CIRCUMFERENTIAL MEMBERS AS WELL AS THE INTERNALLY RIGID METAL SUPPORT STRUCTURE. THE DESIGNS MUST FUNCTIONALLY INDEX THE MERIDIONAL AND CIRCUMFERENTIAL MEMBERS TO ONE ANOTHER TO MINIMIZE SENSITIVITY TO MANUFACTURING, HANDLING AND OPERATIONAL TRAUMA, ALL THE WHILE MAINTAINING THEIR INDEPENDENT LOAD CARRYING ROLES. THIS DESIGN PROCESS RESULTS IN OVERSIZED MEMBERS TO ACCOUNT FOR LOAD UNCERTAINTIES AND SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASES THE HANDLING, MANUFACTURING, AND INTEGRATION RISKS. THE UNIQUE ULTRA HIGH PERFORMANCE VESSEL (UHPV) TECHNOLOGY PROVIDES THE SOLUTION TO THE DESIGN AND MANUFACTURE OF ROBUST INFLATABLE STRUCTURES WITH EXCEPTIONAL ACCURACY AND DIMENSIONAL STABILITY. UHPV TECHNOLOGY PROVIDES HIGH SHELL LOAD CONTAINMENT ARCHITECTURE WITH FULLY DETERMINATE LOAD PATHWAYS THAT CAN BE MODELED MATHEMATICALLY. THE LIGHTWEIGHT, LOW COST INFLATABLE FABRIC STRUCTURE, CONSISTING OF BARRIER FILM LAYERS, CARRIER CLOTH CONTAINMENT LAYERS, AND PRESSURE RESTRAINT TENDONS CAN BE DESIGNED AND FABRICATED TO PROVIDE AN ACCURATE GEOMETRY WITHOUT THE NEED FOR AN INTERNAL SKELETAL FRAME. ELIMINATING THE NEED FOR A RIGID INTERNAL LOAD-BEARING FRAME ALLOWS THE COLLAPSED INFLATABLE TO BE PACKAGED IN THE SMALLEST POSSIBLE VOLUME. TO BRING THIS INNOVATIVE INFLATABLE DESIGN TO USE FOR SURFACE HABITATS, AIRLOCKS AND MYRIAD OTHER SPACE ENVIRONMENT AND CONTAINMENT APPLICATIONS, A VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION PLAN USING BOTH TESTING AND PREDICTIVE ANALYTICAL MODELS IS PROPOSED TO CONCLUSIVELY DEMONSTRATE THAT THE FULLY LOAD-DETERMINATE UHPV CAN MEET ALL STRUCTURAL DESIGN REQUIREMENTS THEREBY ALLOWING FOR DECREASED MASS AND RISK.

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• $250,000 - Tuesday the 24th of February 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  THE ORIGINAL SUBLIMATOR DRIVEN COLDPLATE (SDC) DESIGN SOUGHT TO PROVIDE SIGNIFICANT MASS SAVINGS OVER A TRADITIONAL PUMPED FLUID LOOP BY COMBINING THE FUNCTIONS OF A COLD PLATE AND A SUBLIMATOR AND ELIMINATING THE FLUID LOOP (LEIMKUEHLER, ET. AL., "DESIGN OF A SUBLIMATOR DRIVEN COLDPLATE DEVELOPMENT UNIT," 2008-01-2169). THE TARGET APPLICATION WAS TO PROVIDE HEAT REJECTION FOR THE ASCENT MODULE OF THE ALTAIR LUNAR LANDER VEHICLE DURING THE LUNAR ASCENT MISSION PHASE. HOWEVER, IN ORDER TO PROVIDE HEAT REJECTION FOR THE ASCENT MODULE DURING THE REST OF THE MISSION, IT IS DESIRABLE TO KEEP THE ASCENT MODULE INTEGRATED WITH THE FLUID LOOP IN THE REST OF THE ALTAIR VEHICLE. THEREFORE, WE PROPOSE AN INTEGRATED SUBLIMATOR DRIVEN COLDPLATE (ISDC) THAT CAN FUNCTION AS BOTH A STANDARD FLOW-THROUGH COLD PLATE AND A SUBLIMATOR DRIVEN COLDPLATE. THE ISDC BUILDS ON THE ORIGINAL SDC CONCEPT BY ADDING COOLANT LAYERS SO THAT IT CAN BE INTEGRATED WITH THE PUMPED FLUID LOOP ON THE REST OF THE VEHICLE. THIS APPROACH PROVIDES MASS SAVINGS BY (1) COMBINING MULTIPLE PIECES OF HARDWARE INTO A SINGLE PIECE OF HARDWARE AND (2) PROVIDING ADDITIONAL FAULT TOLERANCE WITHOUT THE NEED FOR REDUNDANT HARDWARE.

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• $250,000 - Wednesday the 20th of March 2013
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  EXTENDED DURATION MISSIONS TO THE MOON AND MARS WILL REQUIRE THE USE OF IN-SITU RESOURCES TO GENERATE PROPELLANTS AND LIFE SUPPORT CONSUMABLES. MANY OF THE PROCESSES FOR IN-SITU RESOURCE UTILIZATION (ISRU) PRODUCE WATER, ALONG WITH A VARIETY OF ACID GASES AND OTHER WATER SOLUBLE CONTAMINANTS. PARAGON PROPOSES TO DEVELOP MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY TO SEPARATE WATER VAPOR FROM CONTAMINANTS IN THE ISRU SYSTEMS. THE WATER VAPOR CAN THEN BE PROCESSED USING PARAGON'S DEMONSTRATED SOLID OXIDE ELECTROLYSIS (SOE) TECHNOLOGY TO PRODUCE PURE GASEOUS OXYGEN FOR LIFE SUPPORT AND/OR PROPULSION. THE MEMBRANE AND SOE SUBSYSTEM HAS NO MOVING PARTS, REQUIRE NO REGENERATION OR RESUPPLY OF SUBCOMPONENTS OVER COMPONENT LIFE TIME, RELY ON ONLY SINGLE PHASE PHYSICS, AND WORK INDEPENDENT OF GRAVITY. IN PHASE 1, PARAGON DEMONSTRATED THE POTENTIAL OF THE MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY FOR USE IN THE TREATMENT OF CONTAMINATED GAS STREAMS. PRELIMINARY RESULTS INDICATE THAT THE MEMBRANE IS CAPABLE OF GENERATING A PURIFIED WATER VAPOR STREAM BY EXTRACTING IT FROM A SECOND STREAM CONTAMINATED WITH HYDROGEN CHLORIDE GAS AS PRODUCED IN LUNAR ISRU SYSTEMS. IN PHASE 2, PARAGON WILL PERFORM THE FOLLOWING: (1) CONFIRM LUNAR&MARTIAN CONTAMINANTS; (2) PREDICT PERFORMANCE AND DERIVE OPERATING CONDITIONS / INTERFACE REQUIREMENTS OF MEMBRANE AND SOE UNITS IN ISRU SYSTEMS VIA SYSTEM ANALYSES; (3) EXPERIMENTALLY VERIFY IMPERMEABILITY OF MEMBRANE TO CONTAMINANTS; (4) DEMONSTRATE MEMBRANE PERFORMANCE DOES NOT HINDER SOE PERFORMANCE THROUGH INTEGRATED TESTING; (5) DEVELOP / TEST FULL SCALE MEMBRANE UNIT THAT MEETS ISRU REQUIREMENTS; AND (6) DELIVER ADDITIONAL MEMBRANE UNIT TO NASA. AT THE END OF THE PHASE 2 EFFORT, PARAGON AIMS TO SHOW THAT THE MEMBRANE IS IMPERMEABLE TO ISRU CONTAMINANTS AND INTEGRATES WELL WITH SOE. THE TECHNOLOGY WILL BE ADVANCED TO A TRL OF NEAR 4 BY DESIGNING / BUILDING A FULL SCALE UNIT THAT DEMONSTRATES WATER EXTRACTION AT REQUIREMENTS SPECIFIC TO ISRU OXYGEN PRODUCTION SYSTEMS.

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• $200,000 - Tuesday the 23rd of July 2013
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  AN INFLATABLE HABITAT IS A PRESSURE VESSEL WITH FLEXIBLE SHELL. NOTABLE FEATURES SUCH AS LOW WEIGHT, LARGE INFLATED OPERATIONAL VOLUME, AND SMALL PRE-DEPLOYMENT VOLUME OFFER SIGNIFICANT ADVANTAGES OVER TRADITIONAL RIGID METALLIC AND COMPOSITE HABITAT STRUCTURES. CONVENTIONAL DESIGNS SUFFER FROM INDETERMINACY OF LOAD SHARING BETWEEN MERIDIONAL AND CIRCUMFERENTIAL MEMBERS AS WELL AS THE INTERNALLY RIGID METAL SUPPORT STRUCTURE. THE DESIGNS MUST FUNCTIONALLY INDEX THE MERIDIONAL AND CIRCUMFERENTIAL MEMBERS TO ONE ANOTHER TO MINIMIZE SENSITIVITY TO MANUFACTURING, HANDLING AND OPERATIONAL TRAUMA, ALL THE WHILE MAINTAINING THEIR INDEPENDENT LOAD CARRYING ROLES. THIS DESIGN PROCESS RESULTS IN OVERSIZED MEMBERS TO ACCOUNT FOR LOAD UNCERTAINTIES AND SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASES THE HANDLING, MANUFACTURING, AND INTEGRATION RISKS. THE UNIQUE ULTRA HIGH PERFORMANCE VESSEL (UHPV) TECHNOLOGY PROVIDES THE SOLUTION TO THE DESIGN AND MANUFACTURE OF ROBUST INFLATABLE STRUCTURES WITH EXCEPTIONAL ACCURACY AND DIMENSIONAL STABILITY. UHPV TECHNOLOGY PROVIDES HIGH SHELL LOAD CONTAINMENT ARCHITECTURE WITH FULLY DETERMINATE LOAD PATHWAYS THAT CAN BE MODELED MATHEMATICALLY. THE LIGHTWEIGHT, LOW COST INFLATABLE FABRIC STRUCTURE, CONSISTING OF BARRIER FILM LAYERS, CARRIER CLOTH CONTAINMENT LAYERS, AND PRESSURE RESTRAINT TENDONS CAN BE DESIGNED AND FABRICATED TO PROVIDE AN ACCURATE GEOMETRY WITHOUT THE NEED FOR AN INTERNAL SKELETAL FRAME. ELIMINATING THE NEED FOR A RIGID INTERNAL LOAD-BEARING FRAME ALLOWS THE COLLAPSED INFLATABLE TO BE PACKAGED IN THE SMALLEST POSSIBLE VOLUME. TO BRING THIS INNOVATIVE INFLATABLE DESIGN TO USE FOR SURFACE HABITATS, AIRLOCKS AND MYRIAD OTHER SPACE ENVIRONMENT AND CONTAINMENT APPLICATIONS, A VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION PLAN USING BOTH TESTING AND PREDICTIVE ANALYTICAL MODELS IS PROPOSED TO CONCLUSIVELY DEMONSTRATE THAT THE FULLY LOAD-DETERMINATE UHPV CAN MEET ALL STRUCTURAL DESIGN REQUIREMENTS THEREBY ALLOWING FOR DECREASED MASS AND RISK.

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• $199,688 - Tuesday the 23rd of July 2013
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  AN INFLATABLE HABITAT IS A PRESSURE VESSEL WITH FLEXIBLE SHELL. NOTABLE FEATURES SUCH AS LOW WEIGHT, LARGE INFLATED OPERATIONAL VOLUME, AND SMALL PRE-DEPLOYMENT VOLUME OFFER SIGNIFICANT ADVANTAGES OVER TRADITIONAL RIGID METALLIC AND COMPOSITE HABITAT STRUCTURES. CONVENTIONAL DESIGNS SUFFER FROM INDETERMINACY OF LOAD SHARING BETWEEN MERIDIONAL AND CIRCUMFERENTIAL MEMBERS AS WELL AS THE INTERNALLY RIGID METAL SUPPORT STRUCTURE. THE DESIGNS MUST FUNCTIONALLY INDEX THE MERIDIONAL AND CIRCUMFERENTIAL MEMBERS TO ONE ANOTHER TO MINIMIZE SENSITIVITY TO MANUFACTURING, HANDLING AND OPERATIONAL TRAUMA, ALL THE WHILE MAINTAINING THEIR INDEPENDENT LOAD CARRYING ROLES. THIS DESIGN PROCESS RESULTS IN OVERSIZED MEMBERS TO ACCOUNT FOR LOAD UNCERTAINTIES AND SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASES THE HANDLING, MANUFACTURING, AND INTEGRATION RISKS. THE UNIQUE ULTRA HIGH PERFORMANCE VESSEL (UHPV) TECHNOLOGY PROVIDES THE SOLUTION TO THE DESIGN AND MANUFACTURE OF ROBUST INFLATABLE STRUCTURES WITH EXCEPTIONAL ACCURACY AND DIMENSIONAL STABILITY. UHPV TECHNOLOGY PROVIDES HIGH SHELL LOAD CONTAINMENT ARCHITECTURE WITH FULLY DETERMINATE LOAD PATHWAYS THAT CAN BE MODELED MATHEMATICALLY. THE LIGHTWEIGHT, LOW COST INFLATABLE FABRIC STRUCTURE, CONSISTING OF BARRIER FILM LAYERS, CARRIER CLOTH CONTAINMENT LAYERS, AND PRESSURE RESTRAINT TENDONS CAN BE DESIGNED AND FABRICATED TO PROVIDE AN ACCURATE GEOMETRY WITHOUT THE NEED FOR AN INTERNAL SKELETAL FRAME. ELIMINATING THE NEED FOR A RIGID INTERNAL LOAD-BEARING FRAME ALLOWS THE COLLAPSED INFLATABLE TO BE PACKAGED IN THE SMALLEST POSSIBLE VOLUME. TO BRING THIS INNOVATIVE INFLATABLE DESIGN TO USE FOR SURFACE HABITATS, AIRLOCKS AND MYRIAD OTHER SPACE ENVIRONMENT AND CONTAINMENT APPLICATIONS, A VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION PLAN USING BOTH TESTING AND PREDICTIVE ANALYTICAL MODELS IS PROPOSED TO CONCLUSIVELY DEMONSTRATE THAT THE FULLY LOAD-DETERMINATE UHPV CAN MEET ALL STRUCTURAL DESIGN REQUIREMENTS THEREBY ALLOWING FOR DECREASED MASS AND RISK.

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• $150,000 - Wednesday the 20th of March 2013
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  EXTENDED DURATION MISSIONS TO THE MOON AND MARS WILL REQUIRE THE USE OF IN-SITU RESOURCES TO GENERATE PROPELLANTS AND LIFE SUPPORT CONSUMABLES. MANY OF THE PROCESSES FOR IN-SITU RESOURCE UTILIZATION (ISRU) PRODUCE WATER, ALONG WITH A VARIETY OF ACID GASES AND OTHER WATER SOLUBLE CONTAMINANTS. PARAGON PROPOSES TO DEVELOP MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY TO SEPARATE WATER VAPOR FROM CONTAMINANTS IN THE ISRU SYSTEMS. THE WATER VAPOR CAN THEN BE PROCESSED USING PARAGON'S DEMONSTRATED SOLID OXIDE ELECTROLYSIS (SOE) TECHNOLOGY TO PRODUCE PURE GASEOUS OXYGEN FOR LIFE SUPPORT AND/OR PROPULSION. THE MEMBRANE AND SOE SUBSYSTEM HAS NO MOVING PARTS, REQUIRE NO REGENERATION OR RESUPPLY OF SUBCOMPONENTS OVER COMPONENT LIFE TIME, RELY ON ONLY SINGLE PHASE PHYSICS, AND WORK INDEPENDENT OF GRAVITY. IN PHASE 1, PARAGON DEMONSTRATED THE POTENTIAL OF THE MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY FOR USE IN THE TREATMENT OF CONTAMINATED GAS STREAMS. PRELIMINARY RESULTS INDICATE THAT THE MEMBRANE IS CAPABLE OF GENERATING A PURIFIED WATER VAPOR STREAM BY EXTRACTING IT FROM A SECOND STREAM CONTAMINATED WITH HYDROGEN CHLORIDE GAS AS PRODUCED IN LUNAR ISRU SYSTEMS. IN PHASE 2, PARAGON WILL PERFORM THE FOLLOWING: (1) CONFIRM LUNAR&MARTIAN CONTAMINANTS; (2) PREDICT PERFORMANCE AND DERIVE OPERATING CONDITIONS / INTERFACE REQUIREMENTS OF MEMBRANE AND SOE UNITS IN ISRU SYSTEMS VIA SYSTEM ANALYSES; (3) EXPERIMENTALLY VERIFY IMPERMEABILITY OF MEMBRANE TO CONTAMINANTS; (4) DEMONSTRATE MEMBRANE PERFORMANCE DOES NOT HINDER SOE PERFORMANCE THROUGH INTEGRATED TESTING; (5) DEVELOP / TEST FULL SCALE MEMBRANE UNIT THAT MEETS ISRU REQUIREMENTS; AND (6) DELIVER ADDITIONAL MEMBRANE UNIT TO NASA. AT THE END OF THE PHASE 2 EFFORT, PARAGON AIMS TO SHOW THAT THE MEMBRANE IS IMPERMEABLE TO ISRU CONTAMINANTS AND INTEGRATES WELL WITH SOE. THE TECHNOLOGY WILL BE ADVANCED TO A TRL OF NEAR 4 BY DESIGNING / BUILDING A FULL SCALE UNIT THAT DEMONSTRATES WATER EXTRACTION AT REQUIREMENTS SPECIFIC TO ISRU OXYGEN PRODUCTION SYSTEMS.

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• $105,000 - Tuesday the 24th of February 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  THE ORIGINAL SUBLIMATOR DRIVEN COLDPLATE (SDC) DESIGN SOUGHT TO PROVIDE SIGNIFICANT MASS SAVINGS OVER A TRADITIONAL PUMPED FLUID LOOP BY COMBINING THE FUNCTIONS OF A COLD PLATE AND A SUBLIMATOR AND ELIMINATING THE FLUID LOOP (LEIMKUEHLER, ET. AL., "DESIGN OF A SUBLIMATOR DRIVEN COLDPLATE DEVELOPMENT UNIT," 2008-01-2169). THE TARGET APPLICATION WAS TO PROVIDE HEAT REJECTION FOR THE ASCENT MODULE OF THE ALTAIR LUNAR LANDER VEHICLE DURING THE LUNAR ASCENT MISSION PHASE. HOWEVER, IN ORDER TO PROVIDE HEAT REJECTION FOR THE ASCENT MODULE DURING THE REST OF THE MISSION, IT IS DESIRABLE TO KEEP THE ASCENT MODULE INTEGRATED WITH THE FLUID LOOP IN THE REST OF THE ALTAIR VEHICLE. THEREFORE, WE PROPOSE AN INTEGRATED SUBLIMATOR DRIVEN COLDPLATE (ISDC) THAT CAN FUNCTION AS BOTH A STANDARD FLOW-THROUGH COLD PLATE AND A SUBLIMATOR DRIVEN COLDPLATE. THE ISDC BUILDS ON THE ORIGINAL SDC CONCEPT BY ADDING COOLANT LAYERS SO THAT IT CAN BE INTEGRATED WITH THE PUMPED FLUID LOOP ON THE REST OF THE VEHICLE. THIS APPROACH PROVIDES MASS SAVINGS BY (1) COMBINING MULTIPLE PIECES OF HARDWARE INTO A SINGLE PIECE OF HARDWARE AND (2) PROVIDING ADDITIONAL FAULT TOLERANCE WITHOUT THE NEED FOR REDUNDANT HARDWARE.

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