FRANS RIETMEIJER UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICOSTUDIES OF THE NUCLEATION GROWTH AND METAMORPHISM OF REFRACTORY MATERIALS: SIMPLE ANALOGS OF COMPLEX NATURAL SAMPLESWE MAKE DIRT. WE BELIEVE THAT THE MATERIALS THAT WE MAKE IN THE LABORATORY ARE SIMPLE ANALOGS OF MUCH MORE COMPLEX NATURAL SYSTEMS. OUR EXPERIMENTS ARE TYPICALLY DESIGNED TO STUDY A NATURAL PROCESS THOUGH THE PARAMETERS OF THE PROCESS MIGHT NEED TO BE CONSIDERABLY DIFFERENT IN SOME ASPECTS THAN WOULD BE FOUND IN NATURE. THIS WORK HAS EVOLVED ALONG SEVERAL DISTINCT LINES OF RESEARCH: NUCLEATION STUDIES THERMAL ANNEALING AND HYDRATION OF INITIALLY AMORPHOUS GRAINS CATALYTIC ACTIVITY OF AMORPHOUS SILICATES CONSTRAINTS ON FORMATION OF PRESOLAR GRAINS OXYGEN ISOTOPIC FRACTIONATION DURING CONDENSATION TRAPPING NOBLE GASES IN CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS AND MEASUREMENT: OF THE VAPOR PRESSURE OF SOLIDS TO 2000K. IN ADDITION WE HAVE FREELY SUPPLIED OUR MATERIALS TO OTHER GROUPS FOR USE IN THEIR OWN EXPERIMENTS. IN THE COURSE OF THESE STUDIES WE WILL MEASURE A WIDE RANGE OF PHYSICAL CONSTANTS SUCH AS THE VAPOR PRESSURES OF MATERIALS RATES OF THERMAL AND HYDROUS ANNEALING OXYGEN ISOTOPIC FRACTIONATION CHEMICAL SPECIATION IN NEW CONDENSATES AND AS THE RESULT OF METAMOI PHISM TRAPPING OF NOBLE GASES INFRARED SPECTRAL SIGNATURES ETC. THESE STUDIES SUPPORT THE 2006 NASA STRATEGIC PLAN UNDER GOAL 3 DEVELOP A BALANCED OVERALL PROGRAM OF SCIENCE EXPLORATION AND AERONAUTICS SUB-GOAL 3C: ADVANCE SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE OF THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM THE POTENTIAL FOR LIFE ELSEWHERE AND THE HAZARDS AND RESOURCES PRESENT AS HUMANS EXPLORE SPACE. THESE STUDIES SUPPORT THE SPECIFIC GOALS OF THE COSMOCHEMISTRY PROGRAM: E.G. TO SUPPORT COSMOCHEMICAL RESEARCH PROJECTS THAT INCREASE THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND THE PROCESSES BY WHICH ITS PLANETS AND SMALL BODIES HAVE EVOLVED TO THEIR PRESENT STATES.