A COMPACT HIGH-RESOLUTION GRATING SPECTROGRAPH FOR SPACEBORNE INFRARED ASTRONOMYTHE PRIMARY RESEARCH AREA FOR THIS INVESTIGATION IS SPACE-BASED ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS OF THE INFRARED UNIVERSE; SPECIFICALLY IN THE AREAS OF STAR AND PLANET FORMATION ASTRO-CHEMISTRY EVOLVED STARS SOLAR SYSTEM ATMOSPHERES AND PROBING THE ATMOSPHERES OF EXTRA-SOLAR PLANETS. THIS PROPOSED WORK'S PRIMARY OBJECTIVE IS TO INCREASE THE TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVEL OF A HIGH-RESOLUTION INFRARED SPECTROGRAPH THAT EMPLOYS A GERMANIUM IMMERSION GRATING AS THE PRIMARY DIFFRACTIVE OPTICAL ELEMENT. THIS SPECTROGRAPH'SOPTICAL PATHWAY WOULD BE DESIGNED TO FIT WITHIN A COMPACT VOLUME CONSISTENT WITH A LOW OVERALL INSTRUMENT MASS POTENTIALLY ENABLING NOVEL HIGH-RESOLUTION SPECTROSCOPY ON A SMALL-FORMAT SPACECRAFT. ADDITIONALLY MATURING THIS CAPABILITY NOW MAKES POSSIBLE A HIGH-SPECTRAL RESOLUTION MID-IR SPECTROSCOPY MODE FOR 2020 DECADAL CANDIDATE MISSIONS SUCH AS THE FAR INFRARED SURVEYOR OR THE LARGEULTRAVIOLET OPTICAL AND INFRARED SURVEYOR. THE INVESTIGATION WOULD DELIVER PERFORMANCE DATA FROM AN OPTICAL-BENCH TEST VERSION OF A GERMANIUM-IMMERSION-GRATING-EQUIPPED INSTRUMENT. THIS PRELIMINARY DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE DATA WILL NEXT BE USED TO SUPPORT A PROPOSAL FOR FURTHER TECHNICAL READINESS LEVEL ADVANCEMENT SUCH AS BUILDING A SPECTROGRAPH FOR A GROUND-BASED BALLOON-BASED OR SOUNDING ROCKET TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS.