The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $9,823 - Tuesday the 7th of April 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  THROUGH PIDDP AND ASTEP FUNDING WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING A RAMAN/UV FLUORESCENCE INSTRUMENT AIMED AT REMOTE DETECTION OF ORGANIC MATERIALS ON A FUTURE ASTROBIOLOGY MISSION. HERE WE PROPOSE TO TEST THIS INSTRUMENT COMBINATION FOR USE AS A CHARACTERIZATION TOOL FOR PLANETARY PROTECTION. IN PARTICULAR WE PROPOSE TO: 1) TEST THE ABILITY OF RAMAN/UV FLUORESCENCE TO DETECT AND CHARACTERIZE MICROORGANISMS ON SPACECRAFT SURFACES IN CLEAN-ROOMS IN A RAPID, NON-CONTACT, MANNER. 2) DETERMINE THE ABILITY OF SPECIALLY PREPARED SURFACES THAT ARE KNOWN TO ENHANCE RAMAN SCATTERING (SERS) TO PROVIDE A PASSIVE AMPLIFICATION OF THE RAMAN SIGNAL OF ANY MICROBIAL OR ORGANIC CONTAMINATION ON A SPACECRAFT SURFACE. 3) CONSTRUCT A ROVER "SCOOP" WITH A SERS SURFACE AND TEST THE ABILITY OF THE RAMAN/UV FLUORESCENCE FIELD INSTRUMENTS TO DETECT MICROORGANISMS ON THE SURFACE DURING FIELD TESTS IN THE MOJAVE DESERT. THE PROPOSED WORK IS DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE PLANETARY PROTECTION GOAL OF: "THE DEVELOPMENT OR ADAPTATION OF MODERN MOLECULAR ANALYTICAL METHODS TO RAPIDLY DETECT, CLASSIFY, AND/OR ENUMERATE THE WIDEST POSSIBLE SPECTRUM OF EARTH MICROBES CARRIED BY SPACECRAFT (ON SURFACES AND/OR IN BULK MATERIALS, ESPECIALLY AT LOW DENSITIES) BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER ASSEMBLY AND LAUNCH PROCESSING. OF PARTICULAR INTEREST ARE METHODS CAPABLE OF IDENTIFYING MICROBES CAPABLE OF SURVIVING SPACECRAFT FLIGHT OR PLANETARY ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ... "

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• $9,000 - Tuesday the 5th of May 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  UNDERSTANDING THE DISTRIBUTION OF COMPLEX ORGANIC MOLECULES ASSOCIATED WITH LIVING THINGS IS ESSENTIAL TO ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS EXPRESSED IN THE ASTROBIOLOGY ROADMAP THAT ARE HOW DOES LIFE BEGIN AND EVOLVE? AND DOES LIFE EXIST ELSEWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE? THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS PROPOSAL ARE TO CHANGE THE SELECTIVITY OF PERIPLASMIC BINDING PROTEINS (PBPS) AND TO INCREASE SIGNAL-TO-NOISE (S/N) RATIO IN ORDER TO DEVELOP A NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR MEASURING THE ABUNDANCE OF AN ARRAY OF ORGANIC MOLECULES, WITH STEREOCHEMICAL SPECIFICITY, IN COMPLEX MIXTURES, WITHOUT CHEMICAL MODIFICATION. IN OUR PREVIOUS WORK, WE HAVE DEVELOPED VARIOUS FLUORESCENCE RESONANCE ENERGY TRANSFER (FRET) BASED PROTEIN BIOSENSORS FROM THERMOPHILIC BACTERIA WHICH ARE VERY SPECIFIC FOR THEIR RESPECTIVE L-ISOMERS (PAAVOLA ET AL, 2008) WITH S/N RATIOS BETWEEN 5 AND 10. HOWEVER, HIGHER S/N RATIOS (>20) ARE DESIRABLE TO REDUCE THE COST AND COMPLEXITY OF THE REQUIRED OPTICAL HARDWARE. IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE HIGHER S/N RATIOS, THIS PROPOSAL WILL EMPLOY LUMINESCENCE RESONANCE ENERGY TRANSFER (A VARIATION OF FRET) TECHNIQUE AND TO EMULATE THE BEHAVIOR OF THE PBP'S CHEMOTACTIC SYSTEM. TO CHANGE THE SELECTIVITY, THE LATEST COMPUTATIONAL PROTEIN DESIGN AND GENETIC ENGINEERING TECHNIQUES WILL BE EMPLOYED TO PRODUCE VARIANTS OF PBPS THAT WILL SPECIFICALLY BIND TO THE MOLECULE'S D-ISOMER.

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• $86,759 - Tuesday the 5th of January 2016
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  THE O/OREOS (ORGANISM/ORGANIC EXPOSURE TO ORBITAL STRESSES) NANOSATELLITE HAS BEEN DEVELOPED AS THE FIRST TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION SPACECRAFT AND FLIGHT MISSION OF THE NASA ASTROBIOLOGY SMALL-PAYLOADS PROGRAM. A PROPOSAL ENTITLED "SPACE ENVIRONMENT VIABILITY OF ORGANICS (SEVO): LABORATORY STUDIES AND INTERPRETATION OF THE ORGANISMS/ORGANICS EXPOSURE TO ORBITAL STRESSES (O/OREOS) NANOSATELLITE MISSION RESULTS," SUBMITTED TO THE SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE'S PLANETARY SCIENCE DIVISION, IN RESPONSE TO NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (NRA) NNH09ZDAOOIN, RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN SPACE AND EARTH SCIENCE (ROSES-2009), ASTROBIOLOGY: EXOBIOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY PROGRAM ELEMENT, HAS RECENTLY BEEN AWARDED (LETTER ATTACHED). RICHARD QUINN (SETI) IS A CO-INVESTIGATOR ON THIS PROPOSAL, WHICH HAS BEEN AWARDED TO NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER (ANDREW MATTIODA, P.I.). THIS PROPOSED COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT IS TO SUPPORT THE INTERPRETATION OF THE O/OREOS-SEVO FLIGHT DATA AS DESCRIBED IN THE ORIGINAL PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO THE NASA SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE'S PLANETARY SCIENCE DIVISION.

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• $8,200 - Thursday the 16th of June 2016
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  PI PROPOSES SEVERAL SCIENTIFIC, MISSION SUPPORT, AND PUBLIC OUTREACH ACTIVITIES THAT INCLUDE INVESTIGATIONS ON MARS, THE MOON, THE SATELLITES OF JUPITER AND SATURN, AND PLUTO. THIS PROPOSAL DETAILS TASKS FOR CONTINUED WORK WITH THE SCIENCE TEAMS OF THE MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER (MRO) HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING SCIENCE EXPERIMENT (HIRISE), THE LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER CAMERA (LROC), AND THE NEW HORIZONS SPACECRAFT. PI WILL ALSO APPLY HIS EXPERTISE AND SKILLS AT EVALUATING THE METER-SCALE ROUGHNESS OF MARS TO EFFORTS WHICH WILL SELECT A SAFE AND SCIENTIFICALLY INTERESTING LANDING SITE FOR THE MARS SCIENCE LABORATORY (MSL). PI'S SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS FOCUS ON DETAILED MEASUREMENT OF SURFACE MORPHOLOGY TO DETERMINE THE GEOLOGIC AND TECTONIC HISTORY OF PLANETARY SURFACES. FINALLY, PI IS PARTICIPATING ON A TEAM OF NASA SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS THAT ARE COLLABORATING WITH GOOGLE, INC. TO MAKE NASA'S VAST ARRAY OF PLANETARY DATA MORE ACCESSIBLE BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC THROUGH OPEN GEOSPATIAL STANDARDS VIA THE GOOGLE EARTH PLATFORM.

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• $79,000 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  INVESTIGATING THE MINERALOGY AT LIBYA MONTES, MARS, DETERMINING IF CARBONATES ARE PRESENT, AND CHARACTERIZING THE GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF THE ISIDIS PLANITIA REGION. OBJECTIVES: WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE THE PHYLLOSILICATE-BEARING OUTCROPS IN THE LIBYA MONTES REGION, CONFIRM WHETHER OR NOT CARBONATES ARE PRESENT, AND CHARACTERIZE THE GEOLOGIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE AQUEOUS UNITS AND MAFIC ROCKS. ONE CHALLENGE TO DETECTION OF CARBONATES ON MARS IS THAT A NUMBER OF FE-BEARING PHYLLOSILICATES ALSO HAVE A BAND NEAR 2.3μM. OUR PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE SPECTRAL PROPERTIES OF NONTRONITE-MAGNESITE MIXTURES SHOWED THAT THE CARBONATE 2.3μM BAND MAY BE OVERSHADOWED BY THE NONTRONITE BAND UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS. IN ORDER TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE SPECTRAL PROPERTIES OF CARBONATES IN MIXTURES, WE PROPOSE TO PREPARE SEVERAL NEW CARBONATE MIXTURES AND EVALUATE THEM USING REFLECTANCE AND M SSBAUER SPECTROSCOPY AND XRD. WE WILL THEN USE THE VNIR RESULTS OF THE CARBONATE-PHYLLOSILICATE MIXTURES TO RESOLVE WHETHER OR NOT CARBONATES ARE PRESENT AT LIBYA MONTES. THIS PROJECT REQUIRES COORDINATED DATA ANALYSIS AND LABORATORY INVESTIGATIONS THAT ARE UNIQUELY SUPPORTED BY PGG, AND NOT BY OTHER NASA MARS RESEARCH PROGRAMS. SUMMARY OF RESEARCH TASKS: OUR PROJECT INCLUDES FIVE COORDINATED TASKS DESIGNED TO INVESTIGATE THE COMPOSITION, CHARACTER AND STRATIGRAPHY OF THE AQUEOUS MINERALOGY AT LIBYA MONTES AND REVISE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE VALLEY NETWORKS ALONG THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF ISIDIS BASIN AND THE DOMINANT GEOLOGIC PROCESSES THAT HAVE GOVERNED THE ISIDIS PLANITIA REGION: 1) HYPERSPECTRAL ANALYSES OF THE LIBYA MONTES REGION WITH CRISM DATA IN ORDER TO UNIQUELY IDENTIFY THE MINERALS PRESENT, 2) GEOLOGIC ANALYSES OF THE LIBYA MONTES REGION WITH HRSC IMAGE DATA AND DTMS, AND CTX IMAGE DATA TO GAIN MORPHOLOGICAL AND STRATIGRAPHIC INFORMATION ON A BROAD SCALE AND WITH HIRISE IMAGE DATA AND DTMS TO GAIN MORPHOLOGICAL AND TEXTURAL INFORMATION ON A FINER SCALE, 3) PREPARATION OF MIXTURES OF CARBONATE AND PHYLLOSILICATE MINERALS IN THE LAB AND CHARACTERIZATION WITH VNIR, MB AND XRD, 4) SPECTRAL ANALYSES OF THE MIXTURE DATA INCLUDING QUANTITATIVE BAND DEPTH CHARACTERIZATIONS AND GAUSSIAN MODELING COMPARED TO QUANTITATIVE MINERAL ABUNDANCE DETERMINATIONS FROM XRD AND M SSBAUER SPECTROSCOPY, 5) COORDINATED SYNTHESIS AND ANALYSES OF THE DATA IN ORDER I) TO CONFIRM (OR POSSIBLY REFUTE) THE PRESENCE OF CARBONATE AT LIBYA MONTES, II) TO DETERMINE THE LIKELY TYPE(S) OF CARBONATE MINERALS PRESENT, III) TO CONSTRAIN THE LIKELY ABUNDANCES OF THE CARBONATE AND OTHER MINERALS PRESENT, IV) TO CHARACTERIZE THE STRATIGRAPHY AND ASSIGN RELATIVE AGES OF THE AQUEOUS UNITS (E.G. CARBONATES OLDER OR YOUNGER OR CO-EVOLVED WITH PHYLLOSILICATES AND OLIVINE?), AND V) TO DETERMINE WHAT RELATIONSHIPS THERE ARE BETWEEN CARBONATES (IF PRESENT) AND OTHER LITHOLOGIES IN THE REGION. EXPECTED SIGNIFICANCE: LIBYA MONTES IS ONE OF ONLY A FEW PLACES ON MARS EXHIBITING CARBONATE AND PHYLLOSILICATE SIGNATURES. THESE TWO MINERALS TOGETHER ARE STRONG INDICATORS OF NEUTRAL WATERS. UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF THE AQUEOUS DEPOSITS AT LIBYA MONTES HAS POTENTIALLY FAR-REACHING APPLICATIONS FOR THE GREATER ISIDIS BASIN REGION. IF SIMILAR PROCESSES FORMED PHYLLOSILICATES AND CARBONATES AT NILI FOSSAE AND LIBYA MONTES THEN THESE PROCESSES COULD BE VERY WIDESPREAD IN THE ANCIENT ROCKS ACROSS THE ISIDIS REGION. THIS STUDY COULD REVEAL THAT CARBONATES ARE MORE PREVALENT ON MARS THAN REALIZED TO DATE.

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• $771,000 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  IN DECEMBER 2001, KEPLER BECAME THE 10TH MISSION SELECTED FOR FLIGHT BY NASA'S DISCOVERY PROGRAM, AND THE FIRST SUCH ORIENTED TO ACHIEVE GOALS UNDER NASA'S ORIGINS THEME. THE KEPLER MISSION SEEKS TO DETERMINE THE PREVALENCE OF EARTH-SIZE AND LARGER PLANETS ORBITING SOLAR-LIKE STARS IN THE SOLAR NEIGHBORHOOD, AND TO CHARACTERIZE THE STELLAR PROPERTIES FAVORING THE DEVELOPMENT OF PLANETARY SYSTEMS. IT ACHIEVES THIS GOAL THROUGH TRANSIT PHOTOMETRY BY MONITORING>100,000 MAIN-SEQUENCE STARS CONTINUOUSLY AND SIMULTANEOUSLY FOR AT LEAST 3 YEARS, TO DETECT SIGNATURES OF TRANSITING PLANETS IN THE FLUX TIME SERIES OF THEIR HOST STARS. THE KEPLER MISSION SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED LAUNCH AND COMMISSIONING PHASES IN 2009 AND IS NOW IN NORMAL SCIENCE OPERATIONS. THIS PROPOSAL SEEKS TO SUPPORT THE OPERATION AND EVOLUTION OF THE SIGNAL PROCESSING CHAIN FOR THE KEPLER MISSION THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE LIFECYCLE OF THE MISSION THAT ENDS IN NOVEMBER 2013. THE PROPOSED WORK SPANS THE FULL RANGE OF SCIENCE PROCESSING FROM DATA COLLECTION ON THE SPACECRAFT TO PUBLICATION OF CONFIRMED RESULTS.

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• $76,232 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  OBSERVATIONS BY THE SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE AND THE INFRARED SPACE OBSERVATORY SHOW THAT THE EMISSION BANDS FORMERLY REFERRED TO AS THE UNIDENTIFIED INFRARED EMISSION FEATURES (UIRS) DOMINATE THE MID-IR OF ALMOST ALL ASTRONOMICAL SOURCES. IT IS NOW TIME TO GO BEYOND SIMPLY LABELING THE IR EMISSION BANDS AND EXPLOIT THEM AS NEW PROBES OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND UNIVERSE. THE CENTERPIECE OF THIS PROJECT IS OUR LARGE AND UNIQUE IR SPECTRAL DATABASE OF MATRIX-ISOLATED POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS (PAHS) IN THEIR NEUTRAL, POSITIVELY CHARGED AND NEGATIVELY CHARGED STATES. THIS DATABASE, DENOTED AS NASA AMES PAH IR DATABASE, WAS CREATED OVER THE PAST 15 YEARS BY PRIOR NASA GRANT SUPPORT TO FIRST TEST AND THEN CONFIRM THE HYPOTHESIS THAT THE UIRS WERE DUE TO PAHS. A GRANT AWARDED IN 2008 FROM NASA S ASTROPHYSICS DATA ANALYSIS PROGRAM ALLOWED US TO DEVELOP A WEB TOOL THAT CAN BROWSE OUR NASA AMES PAH IR DATABASE USING AN ADVANCED SEARCH ENGINE, SELECT A SET OF SPECTRA, DOWNLOAD THE DATA, AND USE TOOLS TO PLOT, COMPARE, CO-ADD, AND APPLY AN EMISSION TEMPERATURE TO THE SPECTRA. OUR WEB TOOL IS NOW PUBLICLY AVAILABLE AT WWW.ASTROCHEM.ORG/PAHDB. HOWEVER, MANY FEATURES NEED TO BE ADDED TO MAKE IT A POWERFUL TOOL FOR ANALYZING ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. HERE WE PROPOSE TO SIGNIFICANTLY ENHANCE OUR CURRENT WEB TOOL BY ADDING A NEW ON LINE `SPECTRAL ANALYSIS TOOL THAT IS EXPECTED TO BE OF GREAT USE TO ASTRONOMERS STUDYING PAH EMISSION AND THEREFORE ENHANCE THE SCIENTIFIC RETURN OF ONGOING NASA S MISSIONS, SUCH AS SPITZER AND SOFIA, AND FUTURE MISSIONS, SUCH AS JWST.

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• $74,049 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY IN EXTREME DRY ENVIRONMENTS ON EARTH AND ON MARS PART II ICEBITE: AN AUGER AND SAMPLING SYSTEMS FOR GROUND ICE ON MARS WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP AN ICE AUGER AND SAMPLING BIT THAT CAN SAMPLE SUBSURFACE ICE-CEMENTED GROUND ON A MISSION TO MARS THAT WOULD FOLLOW UP ON THE PHOENIX LANDER. ICE ON MARS IS AN IMPORTANT TARGET FOR ASTROBIOLOGY BECAUSE ICE-RICH LOCATIONS COULD HAVE BEEN SITES OF LIQUID WATER ACTIVITY DURING PERIODS OF HIGH OBLIQUITY AND BECAUSE ICE MAY PRESERVE ORGANICS. PHOENIX WILL REACH THE GROUND ICE BUT IS NOT CAPABLE OF SAMPLING BELOW THE SURFACE TO ANY SIGNIFICANT DEGREE. A A FOLLOW ON MISSION WOULD DRILL SEVERAL METERS INTO THE GROUND ICE TO COLLECT DEEPER, OLDER ICE AND SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF ORGANICS AND LIFE. WE PROPOSE TO TEST THE ICE AUGER AND SAMPLING BIT ( ICEBITE ) IN UNDER MARS-LIKE CONDITONS (PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURES) IN THE LABORATORY AND FIELD TEST IT IN UNIVERSITY VALLEY, ANTARCTICA. IN UNIVERSITY VALLEY THE LEVEL OF THE GROUND ICE (ICE TABLE) DROPS FROM THE SURFACE TO A DEPTH OF MORE THAN 35 CM AS A FUNCTION OF DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SMALL, UNNAMED GLACIER AT THE HEAD OF THE VALLEY. WE PROPOSE TO DEMONSTRATE ASEPTIC SAMPLING WITH ICEBITE, AND CONDUCT A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS STUDY OF THE MICROBIOLOGY MICROORGANISMS THAT OCCUR UPON THE SURFACE OF THE ICE TABLE AS A FUNCTION OF DEPTH. DEEPER ICE TABLES SEE LOWER MAXIMUM SUMMER TEMPERATURES. WHEN THE ICE TABLE IS AT THE SURFACE THE SUMMER TEMPERATURE REACHES 0 C BUT WHEN THE ICE TABLE IS 35 CM BELOW THE SURFACE THE MAXIMUM SUMMER TEMPERATURE IS -10 C. PREVIOUS WORK HAS DEMONSTRATED THAT MICROORGANISMS IN ICE-SEDIMENT MIXTURES CAN METABOLIZE AND REPRODUCE AT -10 C. WE WILL TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT THE NUMBER AND DIVERSITY OF MICROORGANISMS AT THE ICE TABLE REFLECTS ADAPTATION TO THE MAXIMUM SUMMER TEMPERATURES.

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• $72,966 - Monday the 20th of April 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  OBJECTIVES: IMAGES FROM THE PHOENIX MECA OPTICAL MICROSCOPE (POM) OF SOIL GRAINS AT THE PHOENIX LANDING SITE, WITH HIGHER RESOLUTION THAN ANY IMAGES PREVIOUSLY OBTAINED ON MARS, HAVE REVEALED ENIGMATIC GRAIN SHAPES. INTERPRETATIONS OF THE GRAIN SHAPES VARY FROM CHEMICAL WEATHERING, TO VESICULAR GRAINS, OR SIMPLY AEOLIAN BASALTIC PARTICLES EMBEDDED IN DUST. WE PLAN A SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE PHOENIX OM IMAGES WITH THE OBJECTIVE OF BETTER UNDERSTANDING THE GEOLOGY PRODUCING THESE GRAIN MORPHOLOGIES IN THE NORTHERN PLAINS OF MARS. APPROACH: WE WILL PERFORM A MORE EXTENSIVE ANALYSIS OF THE POM IMAGES. USING IMAGE DATA FROM THE PDS, CAREFULLY PROCESSED TO BEST PRESERVE COLOR AND FOCUS, EACH INDIVIDUAL IDENTIFIABLE GRAIN IN THE SUITE OF POM IMAGES WILL BE CATEGORIZED ACCORDING TO SIZE, SHAPE, TEXTURE, OPTICAL PROPERTIES AND COLOR. THE DATABASE GENERATED BY THIS METHOD WILL THEN BE INTERROGATED TO EVALUATE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN THESE PROPERTIES TO ANSWER A RANGE OF QUESTIONS RELATED TO GRAIN PROVENANCE. FOR EXAMPLE, ARE THERE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN SHAPE AND GRAIN SIZE? MAY SOME OF THE GRAINS BE MICROTECTITES OR THE RESULT OF AQUEOUS WEATHERING? DOES COLOR RELATE TO GRAIN SIZE OR OTHER PROPERTIES? CAN SOME GRAINS BE CHARACTERIZED BY DISTINCTIVE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OR IS THERE SIMPLY A GRADATION OF PARAMETERS BETWEEN THE GRAINS? IDENTIFYING SUCH CORRELATIONS CAN LEAD TO CLUES ABOUT THE PROVENANCE AND HISTORY OF THE SOIL PARTICLES. SOME OF THE PUZZLES FROM THE PHOENIX MICROSCOPY RESULT FROM THE LIMITS OF RESOLUTION AND LIGHTING CONDITIONS FROM THE INSTRUMENT. TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE POM RESULTS AND HOW THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IMAGING SYSTEM EFFECT INTERPRETATIONS, WE WILL COMPARE THE OM IMAGES FROM PHOENIX WITH CAREFULLY-PRODUCED CONTROL/CALIBRATION IMAGES ACQUIRED WITH AN ENGINEERING MODEL OF THE PHOENIX OM.RELEVANCE: THE RESULTS OF THIS WORK WILL HELP TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE GEOLOGY OF THE PHOENIX LANDING SITE, AND PHYSICAL PROCESSES ON MARS, IN PARTICULAR, THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF AQUEOUS WEATHERING IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE.

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• $70,111 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  THE PAVILION LAKE RESEARCH PROJECT (PLRP) (WWW.PAVILIONLAKE.COM) IS A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY UNDERWATER SCIENCE AND EXPLORATION ENDEAVOR WITH THE AIM TO UNDERSTAND THE FACTORS INFLUENCING MICROBIALITE MORPHOGENESIS IN PAVILION LAKE, B.C., CANADA (50 51' N, 121 44' W) (FIG.1), AND THE POTENTIAL FOR BIOSIGNATURE PRESERVATION IN THESE CARBONATE ROCKS. THE PLRPS RESEARCH GOALS DIRECTLY ADDRESS MARS SCIENCE QUESTIONS PERTAINING TO THE IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MINERALIZED BIOSIGNATURES. THE PLRP ESTABLISHED A DEEPWORKER SCIENCE AND EXPLORATION (DSE) PROGRAM TO MAP PAVILION LAKE WITH HUMAN EXPLORERS AS THE PRIMARY DATA GATHERING TOOL. AT THE HEART OF THIS PROGRAM ARE TWO DEEPWORKER (DW), SINGLE PERSON SUBMERSIBLES THAT OFFER SCIENTIST PILOTS (SP) AN OPPORTUNITY TO SAFELY MAP, STUDY AND SAMPLE THE LAKE IN A PRESSURIZED 1 ATM ENVIRONMENT. THE CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH THE HUMAN SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION OF AN UNDERWATER ENVIRONMENT ARE ANALOGOUS TO THOSE WE WILL ENCOUNTER ON THE MOON AND MARS. THE PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND OPERATIONAL RIGORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE SCUBA DIVING AND DSE PROGRAM AT PAVILION LAKE ARE DIRECTLY RELATABLE TO ASTRONAUT EVA SCENARIOS USING SPACESUITS AND PRESSURIZED ROVERS, RESPECTIVELY. UNDERWATER, HUMANS MUST,AS THEY OFTEN DO IN SPACE: CONTEND WITH LIMITED CONNECTION TO COLLEAGUES, PROTECTION/ISOLATION FROM THE ENVIRONMENT, AND LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS (LSS), ALL WHILE EXPLORING AND CONDUCTING SCIENCE IN VARIABLE AND UNFAMILIAR TERRAINS. THESE WORKING CONSTRAINTS ARE NOT SIMULATED, BUT REAL AND INEXTRICABLE FROM THE DSE ACTIVITIES. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS TYPE 2 MMAMA PROPOSAL IS TO BUILD UPON THE EXISTING PLANETARY/ASTROBIOLOGY ANALOG SCIENCE FIELD PROGRAM AT PAVILION LAKE TO PROVIDE HIGH-FIDELITY SCIENCE, SCIENCE OPERATIONS, MISSION OPERATIONS, AND TECHNOLOGY CONSTRAINTS TO HELP NASA PLAN FOR FUTURE EXPLORATION OF THE MOON, MARS AND OTHER PLANETARY BODIES WITH HUMANS. WORK PROPOSED SUPPORTS INTEGRATED FIELD ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIMENTS WITH THE PAVILION LAKE RESEARCH PROJECT (PLRP) THAT MAP TO FOUR MMAMA FIDELITY AREAS AND WILL YIELD IMPORTANT SCIENTIFICALLY GROUNDED, AND FIELD TESTED FEEDBACK TO THE LUNAR EXPLORATION COMMUNITY THAT WILL POSITIVELY IMPACT OUR DESIGN OF HUMAN MISSIONS TO THE MOON AND MARS. OUR PROPOSAL HAS DIRECT APPLICATION TO NASA STRATEGIC SUB-GOAL 3C AS WELL AS LUNAR SCIENCE GOALS AND OSWEG PRIORITIES.

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