The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $288,915 - Monday the 11th of June 2012
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA HEADQUARTERS
  THIS PROPOSAL INTRODUCES A NEW DIMENSION TO THE ICEBRIDGE MISSION BY FURTHER PROCESSING AN EXISTING DATA SOURCE PRESENTLY ON BOARD THE DC-8 AND P-3 AIRCRAFT, NAMELY THE DIGITAL MAPPING SYSTEM (OMS). THE DMS PRODUCES HIGH-RESOLUTION, GEO-RECTIFIED IMAGERY THAT IS USED AT PRESENT FOR ICE SURFACE DOCUMENTATION AND PAO OUTREACH. HOWEVER, IT IS POSSIBLE TO FURTHER PROCESS THIS IMAGE DATA SET TO GENERATE AN INDEPENDENT, HIGH-RESOLUTION ELEVATION MODEL OF THE ICE SURFACE THAT CAN SIGNIFICANTLY ADD TO THE VALUE OF THE ICEBRIDGE MISSION. THIS INDEPENDENT DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL (DEM) IS ACHIEVED THROUGH APPLICATION OF MULTI-VIEW PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND STATE-OF-ART 3-DIMENSIONAL PATTERN EXTRACTION TECHNOLOGY. THE SCIENCE CONTRIBUTIONS THAT OMS BRINGS TO THE LCEBRIDGE MISSION THROUGH ITS INCLUSION IN THE DC-8 AND P-3 SENSOR PAYLOADS CAN BE QUITE READILY EXTENDED ONTO THE GLOBAL HAWK. THE BASIC OMS DESIGN WOULD REMAIN UNCHANGED, EXCEPT FOR POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS THAT MIGHT BE INCORPORATED OVER THE NEXT 12 TO 18 MONTHS. THE PRIMARY CHALLENGES RELATE TO PAYLOAD VOLUME AND WEIGHT LIMITATIONS, THE UNPRESSURIZED PAYLOAD BAY AND EXTREMELY COLD TEMPERATURES AT FLIGHT ALTITUDE. HOWEVER, THESE CHALLENGES HAVE BEEN OVERCOME DURING THE DEVELOPMENT OF PREVIOUS CAMERA SYSTEMS FLOWN ON THE WB-57 AND ER-2 AIRCRAFT AND CAN BE HANDLED BY EXISTING DESIGNS. THIS EFFORT COVERS TWO SEPARATE, BUT RELATED OBJECTIVES: OBJECTIVE 1: TO DEVELOP AN IMAGE-BASED DEM EXTRACTION SYSTEM THAT WOULD GENERATE A HIGH-RESOLUTION POSTING OF THE ICE SURFACE DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL (DEM), INDEPENDENTLY OF OTHER ONBOARD SENSORS. THIS IMAGE-DERIVED DEM WOULD PROVIDE FROM 3X TO 5X FINER POSTING THAN POSSIBLE BY LIDAR AND COULD BE MERGED WITH LVIS OR ATM DATA SYNERGISTICALLY TO INCREASE THEIR HORIZONTAL RESOLUTION, FILL DATA VOIDS AND POTENTIALLY ALLOW SEPARATION OF FLIGHT LINES. AN ADDED ADVANTAGE OF IMAGE-BASED OEM EXTRACTION IS THE ABILITY TO ORTHORECTIFY AND DRAPE THE RAW IMAGERY ON THE DERIVED SURFACE TO CREATE A VISUALLY REALISTIC MODEL. THE PROPOSED OEM EXTRACTION IS COMPUTATIONALLY INTENSIVE, SO THE USE OF EXISTING COMPUTING RESOURCES IS PROPOSED TO ALLOW COST-EFFECTIVE PROCESSING OF A SINGLE FLIGHT WITHIN A 72-HOUR PROCESSING WINDOW. IMAGERY-DERIVED DEM PROCESSING OF ALL FUTURE ICEBRIDGE MISSIONS THROUGH 2012 IS PROPOSED. OBJECTIVE 2: TO INTEGRATE AND FLIGHT-TEST A DIGITAL MAPPING SYSTEM (DMS) FOR THE GLOBAL HAWK VA V. THIS DMS WOULD BE SIMILAR TO THE DEW8 AND P-3 OPERATIONAL SYSTEMS AND WOULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EXPERIENCE GAINED FROM CAMERA INSTALLATIONS PRESENTLY FLYING ONBOARD THE NASA ER-2, WB-57 AND DC-8 AIRCRAFT. THESE OPERATIONAL SYSTEMS WERE DEVELOPED BY CIRRUS DIGITAL SYSTEMS AND OPERATE IN THE FLIGHT REGIME OF THE GLOBAL HAWK. THE SYSTEM TOTAL WEIGHT/VOLUME WOULD BE APPROXIMATELY 20-POUNDS/L CUBIC FOOT AND UTILIZE EXISTING APPLANIX GPSIIMU HARDWARE. THE ABOVE ADVANTAGES OF OEM PRODUCTION, AS OUTLINED IN OBJECTIVE 1, WOULD BE REALIZED BY THIS GLOBAL HAWK SENSOR.

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