The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $784 - Wednesday the 20th of November 2013
  Veterans Affairs Department
  242-NETWORK CONTRACT OFFICE 02
  IGF::CT::IGF CT CRITICAL FUNCTIONS EXPRESS REPORT FPDS EXPENDITURES FOR ADHC ALBANY

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• $62,000 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  IN OUR PRIOR WORK WE DETERMINED THAT ANHYDROUS ORDINARY CHONDRITE METEORITES, MAINLY SAMPLES FROM DRY INNER-BELT ASTEROIDS, ARE TWICE AS STRONG (I.E., IT REQUIRES TWICE THE PROJECTILE ENERGY PER UNIT TARGET MASS TO PRODUCE THE SAME DEGREE OF DISRUPTION) AS TERRESTRIAL BASALT. THIS RESULT, RECENTLY CONFIRMED BY CONTALLA AND CO-WORKERS, DEMONSTRATES THE NECESSITY OF DETERMINING THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF ACTUAL SAMPLES OF ASTEROIDS (THE METEORITES) OR CAREFULLY SELECTED ANALOG MATERIALS FOR USE IN MODELING AND SIMULATIONS OF ASTEROID BEHAVIOR, RATHER THAN SIMPLY USING TERRESTRIAL ROCK VALUES. MOST LABORATORY HYPERVELOCITY COLLISION EXPERIMENTS HAVE BEEN PERFORMED ON ANHYDROUS TARGETS HAVING MINIMAL POROSITY. HOWEVER, REMOTE SENSING AND SPACECRAFT MEASUREMENTS DEMONSTRATE THAT A SIGNIFICANT FRACTION OF THE ASTEROID POPULATION IS HYDROUS AND/OR POROUS. TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE PRODUCTION OF DUST AND LARGER DEBRIS FROM CRATERING OR DISRUPTION OF ASTEROIDS, AND TO DETERMINE THE STRENGTH (I.E., THE ENERGY PER UNIT TARGET MASS REQUIRED TO DISRUPT A BODY SUCH THAT ITS LARGEST FRAGMENT HAS HALF THE MASS OF THE INITIAL BODY) WE PROPOSE A SERIES OF HYPERVELOCITY IMPACT EXPERIMENTS ON TARGETS SELECTED TO SIMULATE HYDROUS AND/OR POROUS ASTEROIDS. MOST OF THE HYDROUS METEORITES THAT FALL TO EARTH ARE EITHER CM2 METEORITES, LIKE MURCHISON, OR CI1 METEORITES, LIKE ORGUEIL. MURCHISON IS MODERATELY POROUS WHILE ORGUEIL IS EXTREMELY POROUS AND FRIABLE, POSSIBLY REPRESENTING THE EXTREME OF MATERIAL THAT CAN SURVIVE ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY WITHOUT DISINTEGRATING. WE HAVE DISRUPTED AN ~30 GM SAMPLE OF MURCHISON AND PROPOSE TO DISRUPT ADDITIONAL SAMPLES OF MURCHISON AND OTHER CM2 METEORITES TO DETERMINE THE STRENGTH AND CHARACTERIZE THE DUST PRODUCTION FROM HYDROUS TARGET MATERIAL, SINCE ~50% OF THE OUTER MAIN BELT ASTEROIDS SHOW SPECTRAL SIGNS OF HYDRATION.. METEORITES LIKE ORGUEIL ARE SO SMALL AND RARE THAT WE ARE NOT ABLE TO OBTAIN A SUFFICIENTLY LARGE SAMPLE (>20 GM) OF THIS TYPE OF METEORITE TO PERFORM DISRUPTION EXPERIMENTS. HOWEVER THE EXTREME POROSITY AND FRIABILITY OF THE CI1 METEORITES SUGGESTS THEY MAY HAVE UNUSUAL DISRUPTION CHARACTERISTICS. TO INVESTIGATE THE RESPONSE OF THE CI1 METEORITES TO HYPERVELOCITY IMPACTS WE HAVE DEMONSTRATED A LABORATORY TECHNIQUE TO ARTIFICIALLY HYDRATE AN ANHYDROUS METEORITE A TECHNIQUE THAT HAS BEEN EMPLOYED ON SMALLER SAMPLES BY OTHER RESEARCHERS WHO STUDY THE HYDRATION PROCESS. WE PROPOSE TO PREPARE LABORATORY-HYDRATED METEORITE TARGETS AND DISRUPT THEM AT THE AMES VERTICAL GUN RANGE TO INVESTIGATE THE STRENGTH AND DUST PRODUCTION OF CI1 METEORITES. TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECTS OF POROSITY, WE PROPOSE TO FOLLOW UP ON AN INITIAL EXPERIMENT IN WHICH WE IMPACTED A PUMICE (DENSITY ~0.9 GM/CC) TARGET WITH A PROJECTILE THAT WOULD HAVE DISRUPTED A NON-POROUS BASALT TARGET. THIS IMPACT PRODUCED ONLY A CRATER IN THE PUMICE TARGET. WE PROPOSE TO CONTINUE THIS PROJECT, WHICH IS PARTICULARLY RELEVANT TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE CRATERING PROCESS ON THE ASTEROID MATHILDE (DENSITY ~1.3 GM/CC) AND CHOOSING BETWEEN MICRO- AND MACRO-POROSITY IN ITS STRUCTURE. IN ADDITION, WE PROPOSE TO FOLLOW UP ON AN EXPERIMENT CONDUCTED DURING OUR FEBRUARY 2009 AVGR RUN, WHICH EXAMINED THE IMPACT FRAGMENTATION OF BLOCKS EMBEDDED IN REGOLITH. TO AID INTERPRETATION OF ASTEROID AND LUNAR SURFACE IMAGERY WE PROPOSE A SERIES OF IMPACTS INTO BASALT BLOCKS, COVERING A RANGE OF IMPACT ANGLES AND BLOCK BURIAL DEPTHS, FOCUSING ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL EXPRESSIONS OF BLOCK DEBRIS AND SCARS IN THE SURROUNDING REGOLITHS.

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• $51,331 - Wednesday the 27th of January 2016
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  CHONDRITIC, POROUS INTERPLANETARY DUST PARTICLES (CP IDPS) ARE THE MOST PRIMITIVE SAMPLES OF THE SOLAR NEBULA AVAILABLE FOR LABORATORY ANALYSIS [ISHII ET AL., SCIENCE, 2008]. THE -10 MICRON CP IDPS ARE UNEQUIIIBRATED AGGREGATES OF MOSTLY SUB MICRON GRAINS, INCLUDING OLIVINE, PYROXENE, GLASS, AND SULFIDE. WE HAVE FOUND THAT THE INDIVIDUAL GRAINS ARE COATED BY -100 NM THICK LAYERS OF ORGANIC MATTER. THIS IMPLIES AN ASSEMBLY SEQUENCE: GRAIN FORMATION, EMPLACEMENT OF THE ORGANIC COATING, AND FINALLY ASSEMBLY OF CP IDPS. THUS, THESE ORGANIC GRAIN COATINGS APPEAR TO BE THE EARLIEST SURVIVING ORGANIC MATTER PRODUCED IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. WE HAVE PERFORMED A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THE GRAIN COATINGS IN SEVERAL CP IDPS BY CARBON X-RAY ABSORPTION NEAR-EDGE STRUCTURE (C-XANES) SPECTROSCOPY. THE SIMILARITY OF COATING THICKNESS AND XANES SPECTRA FOR COATINGS ON ALL GRAINS, INDEPENDENT OF INERALOGY, INDICATES THAT MINERAL SPECIFIC CATALYSIS, ONE WIDELY ACCEPTED MODEL FOR ORGANIC FORMATION IN THE EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM, WAS NOT THE PRODUCTION MECHANISM FOR THIS ORGANIC MATTER. OUR OBSERVATIONS ARE CONSISTENT WITH THE ALTERNATIVE MODEL, PRODUCTION BY IRRADIATION OF CARBON-BEARING ICES THAT CONDENSED ONTO GRAIN SURFACES. WE PROPOSE TO CONTINUE OUR ANALYSES OF THESE GRAIN COATINGS BY C-XANES, AND EXPAND THE ANALYSES TO INCLUDE 0-, AND N-XANES, WHICH WILL PROVIDE A MORE COMPLETE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PRIMITIVE ORGANIC COATINGS ON THE GRAINS. COMBINED C-, N- AND O-XANES ON THE SAME GRAIN COATINGS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT SINCE WORK BY OTHER INVESTIGATORS INDICATES THAT HIGHER O:C AND N:C RATIOS CORRELATE WITH HIGHER PRIMITIVENESS (I.E., LESS THERMAL MODIFICATION). IN ADDITION, WE WILL COMPARE THE C, N-, AND O-XANES SPECTRA OF ORGANIC MATTER PRODUCED IN LABORATORY SIMULATIONS OF EARLY SOLAR NEBULA PROCESSES IN AN EFFORT TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE PROCESSES THAT RESULTED IN EARLY, PRE-BIOTIC ORGANIC MATTER IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. XXX [NATURE, 1989] NOTED THAT LOPS DELIVERED A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF ORGANIC MATTER TO THE SURFACE OFTHE EARLY EARTH, AND PROPOSED THAT THIS ORGANIC MATTER MIGHT HAVE BEEN IMPORTANT FOR THE ORIGIN OF LIFE ON EARTH. BECAUSE IDPS EXPERIENCE LESS SEVERE HEATING DURING DECELERATION IN THE ATMOSPHERE OF MARS, LARGER IDPS ARE ACCRETED ONTO MARS WITH THEIR ORGANIC MATTER UNPYROLIZED, RESULTING IN A LARGER SURFACE DENSITY (MASS/AREA) OFIDP ORGANIC MATTER ON MARS THAN ON EARTH (XXX, EARTH, MOON AND PLANETS, 1996). OUR DETERMINATION OF THE TYPES AND RELATIVE ABUNDANCES OF ORGANIC FUNCTIONAL GROUPS PRESENT IN THE IDPS PROVIDES AN INVENTORY OF THE PRE-BIOTIC ORGANIC MATTER DELIVERED TO THE SURFACES OF EARTH AND MARS BY IDPS. ONE GROUP OFIDPS THAT WE WILL STUDY, FROM A SPECIAL COLLECTION THAT THE NASA JOHNSON SPACE CENTER CURATORIAL FACILITY SPECIFICALLY TIMED TO COINCIDE WITH A SIGNIFICANTLY ENHANCED DUST FIUX FROM A RECENT OUTBURST ON COMET 26P/GRIGG-SKJELLERUP, IS PARTICULARLY INTERESTING BECAUSE MODELING AND MEASUREMENTS INDICATE THESE COMET DUST PARTICLES WERE NOT SEVERELY HEATED DURING ATMOSPHERIC DECELERATION. THUS THEY PROVIDE THE OPPORTUNITY TO ANALYZE COMETARY ORGANIC MATTER, PRESERVED AT LOW TEMPERATURE IN THE COMET SINCE THE FORMATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

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• $1,500 - Wednesday the 20th of November 2013
  Veterans Affairs Department
  242-NETWORK CONTRACT OFFICE 02
  EXPRESS REPORT FPDS EXPENDITURES FOR ADHC ALBANY

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