ONE OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES OPERATING DURING THE EARLIEST STAGES OF SOLAR SYSTEM EVOLUTION IS THE DIFFERENTIATION OF PLANETARY BODIES. DIFFERENTIATION OCCURS ON MANY PLANETARY SCALES (TERRESTRIAL PLANETS MOONS AND ASTEROIDS) AND TYPICALLY LEADS TO THE PRODUCTIONOF A CORE MANTLE AND CRUST. THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE EARLY DIFFERENTIATION PROCESS PARTIALLY DICTATES THE EVOLUTION OF A PLANETARY BODY AND PERHAPS EVEN ITS EVENTUAL HOSPITABILITY FOR THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE. ABUNDANT EVIDENCE INDICATES THAT THE INITIALSTAGES OF PLANETARY DIFFERENTIATION TOOK PLACE FAIRLY RAPIDLY AND OCCURRED ON PLANETARY BODIES OF DIFFERENT SIZES THROUGHOUT THE SOLAR SYSTEM. THE MOON EXHIBITS MANY FEATURES THAT SUGGEST ITS DIFFERENTIATION OCCURRED BY A PROCESS OF PLANETARY-SCALE MELTING REFERRED TOAS A MAGMA OCEAN. UNLIKE MOST OTHER PLANETS WHERE EVIDENCE OF PRIMORDIAL DIFFERENTIATION HAS BEEN PARTIALLY TO TOTALLY ERASED BY GEOLOGIC ACTIVITY (E.G. EARTH AND MARS) THE MOON CONTAINS REMNANTS OF PRIMORDIAL CRUST AND MANTLE THAT WERE THE PRODUCTS OF "MAGMAOCEAN" CRYSTALLIZATION. ACCESS TO THE LUNAR MANTLE IS FAIRLY LIMITED AND IS PROVIDED BY DATA GENERATED BY THE APOLLO GENERATION SEISMIC NETWORK LARGE IMPACT STRUCTURES INTO THE LUNAR CRUST BASALTS THAT REPRESENT LIQUIDS PRODUCED BY MELTING OF THE LUNAR MANTLE AND HIGHPRESSURE EXPERIMENTS ON APPROPRIATE COMPOSITIONS TO MODEL THE CRYSTALLIZATION HISTORY OF THE MAGMA OCEAN AND GAIN INSIGHTS INTO THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LUNAR MAGMA OCEAN CUMULATES AND SOURCES FOR LUNAR MARE BASALTS. THIS PROJECT AIMS TO UTILIZE SOME OF THESE APPROACHES TO GAIN INSIGHTS INTO THE DIFFERENTIATION OF THE MOON AND RECONSTRUCT THE COMPOSITION OF THE LUNAR INTERIOR.LUNAR METEORITES ARE NEW SAMPLES OF CURRENTLY UNREACHABLE TERRAINS OF THE CRUST THAT MAY HAVE NOT BEEN SAMPLED BY APOLLO. THEY HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO SIGNIFICANTLY ADD TO OUR COMPROMISED KNOWLEDGE OF THE LUNAR INTERIOR BY OFFERING INSIGHTS INTO PREVIOUSLY UNIDENTIFIED SOURCE REGIONS IN THE LUNAR MANTLE. FUTURE ROBOTIC MISSIONS TO THE MOON (E.G. GRAIL SOUTH POLE AITKEN BASIN SAMPLE RETURN) AREDESIGNED TO EXPLORE MANY OF THESE UNKNOWN TERRAINS BUT UNTIL THESE MISSIONS TAKE PLACE LUNAR METEORITES PROVIDE OUR ONLY WINDOW INTO CURRENTLY UNREACHABLE PLACES ON THE MOON. THIS PROJECT WILL UTILIZE THE FACILITIES AT THE INSTITUTE OF METEORITICS TO CHARACTERIZE THEMINERALOGY AND GEOCHEMISTRY OF THREE LUNAR METEORITES IN AN EFFORT TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF THE LUNAR INTERIOR.THE THREE METEORITES IN THIS STUDY REPRESENT LOW-TI BASALTS WITH SIMILAR MINERALOGY AND BULK COMPOSITION BUT WITH DISTINCT ISOTOPIC CHARACTERISTICS. OUR ANALYTICAL APPROACH WILL BE TO PERFORM A THOROUGH PETROLOGIC MINERALOGICAL TRACE ELEMENT AND ISOTOPIC STUDY OF THESE THREE METEORITES IN ORDER TO PLACE THEIR SOURCE REGIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE LUNAR MAGMA OCEAN HYPOTHESIS. OUR EXPERIMENTALAPPROACH WILL BE TO USE EXPERIMENTAL PETROLOGY ON THE BULK COMPOSITIONS OF THESE NEW MARE BASALTS IF WE DETERMINE THEY REPRESENT LIQUID COMPOSITIONS TO DETERMINE THE MINERALOGY COMPOSITION AND DEPTH OF THEIR MANTLE SOURCE REGIONS IN ORDER TO DEVELOP A MORE COMPLETE PICTURE AND MODEL OF THE STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF THE LUNAR MANTLE. THE PETROLOGIC EXAMINATION OF THESE METEORITES ANDTHE EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM WILL EMPLOY THE ELECTRON MICROPROBE (EPMA) ION MICROPROBE (SIMS) AND THE HIGH PRESSURE LABORATORY AVAILABLE AT THE INSTITUTE OF METEORITICS. ISOTOPIC AND BULK ROCK ANALYSES WILL UTILIZE EXISTING COLLABORATIONS WITH LAWRENCE LIVERMORENATIONAL LABORATORY AND NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY.