The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $99,999 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  Department Of Army
  W4GG HQ US ARMY TACOM
  D-2 PROPOSES TO ADAPT THE PROVEN IP-583 METHOD TO ACHIEVE THE ARMY S GOALS OF A SYSTEM WITH THE ABILITY TO FAME DETECTION IN JET AND DIESEL FUELS, WITH A DYNAMIC RANGE 100 PPM TO 7%, WHILE MEETING THE OBJECTIVE OF AN INSTRUMENT WITH SIZE AND OPERATIONAL ENVELOPE SUITABLE FOR USE IN THE ARMY S MOBILE FUEL LABORATORY. WE CALL THIS NEW INSTRUMENT THE MULTI FUEL FAME DETECTOR, (MFFD).

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• $99,961 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  TO ENABLE FREQUENT, LOW-COST OPPORTUNITIES TO DELIVER NANOSATELLITES TO DESTINATIONS BEYOND EARTH ORBIT, TUI PROPOSES TO DEVELOP THE NANOSATELLITE TETHERED HIGH-ORBIT RELEASE (NANOTHOR) MODULE. THE NANOTHOR MODULE WILL ENABLE MULTIPLE NANOSATELLITES CARRIED AS SECONDARY PAYLOADS ON UPPER STAGES LAUNCHED INTO GTO TO BE INJECTED INTO EARTH-ESCAPE TRAJECTORIES BY SCAVENGING ORBITAL OMENTUM AND PROPELLANT FROM THE UPPER STAGE. THE NANOTHOR MODULE WILL UTILIZE A LIGHTWEIGHT, RE-USABLE TETHER TO TRANSFER MOMENTUM FROM THE ROCKET STAGE TO THE NANOSATELLITE. THE USE OF A ROTATING TETHER MULTIPLIES THE ROCKET S DELTA-V BY THE MASS RATIO OF THE STAGE TO THE NANOSAT, ENABLING IT TO PROVIDE BOTH VERY-HIGH SPECIFIC IMPULSE PROPULSION COMPETITIVE WITH THE BEST EP THRUSTERS AND SHORT TRANSFER TIMES COMPETITIVE WITH CHEMICAL ROCKETS. THE TETHER ALSO ENABLES THE STAGE S ORBITAL MOMENTUM TO BE CONVERTED TO TETHER ROTATIONAL MOMENTUM TO INCREASE THE NANOSAT TOSS VELOCITY. AFTER COMPLETING ITS MISSION, THE TETHER CAN BE DE-ORBITED WITHIN ONE ORBIT PERIOD TO ELIMINATE COLLISION OR DEBRIS RISKS. THE NANOTHOR MODULE WILL PROVIDE A LOW-COST, LOW-MASS MEANS TO ENABLE NANOSATELLITES TO BE LAUNCHED AS RIDE-SHARE PAYLOADS ON GEO SATELLITE MISSIONS AND THEN DELIVERED TO DEEP-SPACE TRAJECTORIES. IT WILL THEREFORE ENABLE NASA TO AFFORDABLY LAUNCH FLOTILLAS OF LOW-COST NANOSATELLITES INTO HELIOCENTRIC ORBITS TO CONDUCT SEARCHES FOR NEOS, TO STUDY POTENTIAL TARGETS FOR MANNED EXPLORATION OF ASTEROIDS, TO PROVIDE `NOWCASTING OF SOLAR WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND TO SERVE AS COMMUNICATIONS RELAYS FOR MANNED AND UNMANNED MISSIONS BEYOND EARTH ORBIT.

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• $99,831 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  CURRENTLY, A SIGNIFICANT FRACTION OF THE ENGINEERING COST AND LAUNCH MASS OF SPACE SYSTEMS IS REQUIRED EXCLUSIVELY TO ENABLE THE SYSTEM TO SURVIVE LAUNCH. THIS IS PARTICULARLY TRUE FOR SYSTEMS WITH PHYSICALLY LARGE COMPONENTS, SUCH AS ANTENNAS, BOOMS, AND PANELS, WHICH MUST BE DESIGNED TO STOW FOR LAUNCH AND THEN RELIABLY DEPLOY ON ORBIT. FURTHERMORE, THE SIZES OF APERTURES AND SPACECRAFT STRUCTURES ARE LIMITED BY THE REQUIREMENT TO STOW THEM WITHIN AVAILABLE LAUNCH FAIRINGS. DEPLOYABLE STRUCTURES AND INFLATABLE/RIGIDIZABLE COMPONENTS HAVE ENABLED CONSTRUCTION OF SYSTEMS WITH SCALES OF SEVERAL DOZEN METERS, BUT THEIR PACKING EFFICIENCY IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO ENABLE SCALING TO THE KILOMETER-SIZE BASELINES DESIRED FOR APPLICATIONS SUCH AS LONG-BASELINE INTERFEROMETRY AND SPARSE APERTURE SENSING. WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A PROCESS FOR AUTOMATED ON-ORBIT CONSTRUCTION OF VERY LARGE STRUCTURES AND MULTIFUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS. THE FOUNDATION OF THIS PROCESS IS A NOVEL ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUE CALLED `SPIDERFAB , WHICH COMBINES THE TECHNIQUES OF FUSED DEPOSITION MODELING (FDM) WITH METHODS DERIVED FROM AUTOMATED COMPOSITE LAYUP TO ENABLE RAPID CONSTRUCTION OF VERY LARGE, VERY HIGH-STRENGTH-PER-MASS, LATTICE-LIKE STRUCTURES COMBINING BOTH COMPRESSIVE AND TENSILE ELEMENTS. THIS TECHNIQUE CAN INTEGRATE BOTH HIGH-STRENGTH STRUCTURAL MATERIALS AND CONDUCTING MATERIALS TO ENABLE CONSTRUCTION OF MULTIFUNCTIONAL SPACE SYSTEM COMPONENTS SUCH AS ANTENNAS. THE SPIDERFAB TECHNIQUE ENABLES THE CONSTITUENT MATERIALS FOR A SPACE STRUCTURE TO BE LAUNCHED IN AN EXTREMELY COMPACT FORM, APPROACHING PERFECT PACKING EFFICIENCIES, AND PROCESSED ON-ORBIT TO FORM STRUCTURES OPTIMIZED FOR THE MICRO-GEE SPACE ENVIRONMENT, RATHER THAN LAUNCH ENVIRONMENTS. THE METHOD CAN ALSO CREATE STRUCTURES WITH 2ND AND HIGHER ORDERS OF HIERARCHY, SUCH AS A `TRUSS-OF-TRUSSES , ACHIEVING 30X MASS REDUCTIONS OVER THE 1ST ORDER HIERARCHY STRUCTURES USED IN MOST SPACE APPLICATIONS. THIS APPROACH CAN THEREFORE ENABLE DEPLOYMENT OF ANTENNA REFLECTORS, PHASED ARRAY ANTENNAS, SOLAR PANELS, AND RADIATORS WITH CHARACTERISTIC SIZES ONE TO TWO ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE LARGER THAN CURRENT STATE-OF-THE-ART DEPLOYABLE-STRUCTURE TECHNOLOGIES CAN FIT WITHIN AVAILABLE LAUNCH SHROUDS. THE SPIDERFAB PROCESS FOR ON-ORBIT CONSTRUCTION OF LARGE, LIGHTWEIGHT STRUCTURES WILL DRAMATICALLY REDUCE THE LAUNCH MASS AND STOWED VOLUME OF NASA SYSTEMS FOR ASTRONOMY, EARTH-OBSERVATION, AND OTHER MISSIONS REQUIRING LARGE APERTURES OR LARGE BASELINES, ENABLING THEM TO BE DEPLOYED USING MUCH SMALLER, LESS EXPENSIVE LAUNCH VEHICLES AND THEREBY REDUCING TOTAL LIFE CYCLE COST FOR THESE MISSIONS. POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS INCLUDE CONSTRUCTION OF MULTIPLE HIGH-GAIN ANTENNAS IN EARTH AND SOLAR ORBIT TO SUPPORT A DEEP-SPACE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK, LONG-BASELINE INTERFEROMETRY SYSTEMS FOR TERRESTRIAL PLANET FINDER PROGRAMS, AND SUBMILLIMETER ASTRONOMY OF COSMIC STRUCTURE. THE PROPOSED SPACE SYSTEM FABRICATION TECHNOLOGIES WILL ALSO ENABLE THESE SYSTEMS TO BE RE-CONFIGURABLE AND REPAIRABLE ON ORBIT, AND CAN EVOLVE TO SUPPORT ISRU OF ORBITAL DEBRIS IN EARTH ORBIT AND ASTEROID MATERIALS IN DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION MISSIONS. IN THE PROPOSED EFFORT, WE WILL DEVELOP CONCEPT DESIGNS FOR SPACE SYSTEMS THAT WILL USE THE SPIDERFAB PROCESS TO CREATE AND INTEGRATE VERY LARGE APERTURES AND OTHER STRUCTURES FOR NASA SPACE SCIENCE AND EXPLORATION MISSIONS. WE WILL DEVELOP AN ARCHITECTURE CONCEPT COMBINING THE SPIDERFAB PROCESS WITH ROBOTIC ASSEMBLY TECHNOLOGIES AND AUTOMATED QUALITY CONTROL/METROLOGY TECHNIQUES TO ENABLE ON-ORBIT CONSTRUCTION OF KILOMETER-SCALE ANTENNA APERTURES TO ENABLE CAPABILITIES SUCH AS HIGHBANDWIDTH COMMUNICATIONS WITH DEEP-SPACE PROBES AND RADAR IMAGING OF DEEP-SPACE OBJECTS. WE WILL THEN EVALUATE THE POTENTIAL PERFORMANCE BENEFITS FOR CANDIDATE MISSIONS RELATIVE TO STATE-OF-THE-ART DEPLOYABLES TECHNOLOGIES.

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• $98,400 - Wednesday the 5th of September 2012
  Department Of Army
  W6QK ACC-RSA
  ARMY SBIR PHASE I

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• $749,705 - Thursday the 2nd of October 2014
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  IGF::OT::IGF OTHER FUNCTION - THE POWERCUBE IS A 1U CUBESAT MODULE THAT PROVIDES INTEGRATED PROPULSION, POWER, AND PRECISION POINTING TO ENABLE THE LOW-COST CUBESAT PLATFORM TO BE USED TO CONDUCT HIGH-PERFORMANCE MISSIONS. THE POWERCUBE CONCEPT INTEGRATES THREE INNOVATIVE COMPONENT TECHNOLOGIES TO PROVIDE THESE CAPABILITIES: FIRST, A PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE (PEM) WATER-ELECTROLYSIS FUEL CELL SUPPLIES GH2/GO2 TO A SIMPLE PRESSURE-FED THRUSTER TO PROVIDE 300 NS OF IMPULSE PER 100 ML OF WATER. THIS APPROACH ENABLES THE CUBESAT TO LAUNCH WITH 'INERT' PROPELLANT TO COMPLY WITH P-POD LIMITATIONS ON STORED ENERGY AND THEN PROCESS THE WATER ON-ORBIT INTO HIGH-ISP FUEL. SECOND, A DEPLOYABLE SOLAR ARRAY THAT STOWS ALONG THE LONG SIDES OF THE CUBESAT AND DEPLOYS IN A 'WINDMILL' CONFIGURATION PROVIDES UP TO 96 W PEAK. THIRD, A 3DOF 'CARPAL-WRIST' GIMBAL, IN CONJUNCTION WITH MAGNETIC TORQUE COILS, ENABLES SUN-TRACKING OF THE SOLAR PANEL, VECTORING OF THE THRUSTER, AND PRECISION POINTING OF PAYLOADS. THE COMBINATION OF AMPLE POWER AND WATER ELECTROLYSIS WILL PROVIDE UP TO 6 M/S OF DELTA-V PER 90 MINUTE ORBIT FOR A 3U CUBESAT. COMPARED TO OTHER CUBESAT PROPULSION TECHNOLOGIES, THE POWERCUBE THRUSTER WILL ENABLE MORE RAPID ORBITAL MANEUVERING AND SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER CONTAMINATION ISSUES. OUR PHASE I EFFORT DEVELOPED A DETAILED BASELINE DESIGN FOR THE POWERCUBE, AND BUILT AND TESTED A PROOF-OF-CONCEPT PROTOTYPE OF THE WATER-ELECTROLYSIS THRUSTER. THE PHASE II EFFORT WILL MATURE THE ELECTROLYSIS THRUSTER COMPONENT TO THE ENGINEERING MODEL LEVEL, DEVELOP AND SIMULATE METHODS FOR ATTITUDE CONTROL AND PRECISE POINTING OF BOTH PANELS AND PAYLOADS USING THE GIMBAL AND TORQUE COILS, AND DEVELOP A DETAILED DESIGN FOR THE ENTIRE POWERCUBE MODULE TO ENABLE FLIGHT VALIDATION IN FOLLOW-ON PHASE III EFFORTS.

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• $238,194 - Monday the 17th of September 2012
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
  THIS IS A FOLLOW-ON ACTIVITY THAT IS INTENDED TO BROADEN AND DEVELOP TECHNOLOGIES PERFORMED UNDER CONTRACT, NNM04AA10C, ENTITLED, TECHNOLOGIES FOR MOMENTUM EXCHANGE/ELECTRODYNAMIC-REBOOST (MXER) TETHER FACILITIES. IT IS FURTHER INTENDED TO SPECIFICALLY INCORPORATE A FAILURE-RESISTANT, MULTILINE TETHER SUCH AS THAT DESCRIBED IN TETHERS UNLIMITED, INC. PATENT NO. US 6,431,497. THE TASKS BELOW ADDRESS THE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN, INTEGRATION, AND TEST OF A SATELLITE SYSTEM FOR DEMONSTRATION OF ELECTRODYNAMIC PROPULSION TECHNOLOGY.

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• $149,941 - Wednesday the 10th of October 2012
  Department Of Air Force
  FA9453 DET 8 AFRL PKV8
  VERSATILE STRUCTURAL REDIATION SHIELDING (VSRS)

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• $149,483 - Thursday the 14th of June 2012
  Department Of Air Force
  FA9453 DET 8 AFRL PKV8
  PROGRAMMABLE PICOSAT TRANSCEIVER

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