Mega-masers, Dark Energy and the Hubble Constant

Powerful water maser emission (water mega-masers) can be found in accretion disks in the nuclei of some galaxies. Besides providing a measure of the mass at the nucleus, such mega-masers can be used to determine the distance to the host galaxy, based on a kinematic model. We will explain the importance of determining the Hubble Constant to high accuracy for constraining the equation of state of Dark Energy and describe the Mega-maser Cosmology Project that has the goal of determining the Hubble Constant to better than 3%. Time permitting, we will also present the scientific capabilities of the current and future NRAO facilities: ALMA, EVLA, VLBA and GBT, for addressing key astrophysical problems