INFORMATION ON THE COMPOSITION OF THE PROTO-SOLAR NEBULA DUST AND GAS THAT COLLAPSED TO FORM OUR SOLAR SYSTEM CAN ONLY BE GLEANED BY STUDYING PRIMITIVE MATERIALS THOSE THAT HAVE NOT BEEN SEVERELY ALTERED BY THERMAL OR AQUEOUS PROCESSES. COMETS DERIVE FROM DISTAL REGIONS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND HAVING NOT BEEN HEATED BY THE SUN OR REPROCESSED INTO LARGE BODIES ARE THOUGHT TO CONTAIN SAMPLES OF THE PRIMITIVE MATERIALS FROM WHICH OUR SOLAR SYSTEM FORMED. WE PROPOSE TO COLLECT PARTICLES THOUGHT TO BE FROM COMETS AND ANALYZE THEM TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SOLIDS CONDENSED FROM THE NEBULA AND THE STRUCTURE OF PRIMITIVE ORGANICS THEY CONTAIN. WE WILL COLLECT THE PARTICLES BY SUCTIONING AND FILTERING CLEAN AIR AT SOUTH POLE STATION ANTARCTICA. ANALYSES OF INTERPLANETARY DUST PARTICLES (IDPS) COLLECTED IN THE STRATOSPHERE BY AIRCRAFT HAVE SHOWN THAT SOME OF THESE PARTICLES THE CHONDRITIC POROUS IDPS (CP-IDPS) ARE INDEED PRIMITIVE MATERIALS. THEY CONTAIN VAPOR-DEPOSITED MINERALS SILICATES FORMED UNDER A RANGE OF REDOX CONDITIONS INCLUDING VERY REDUCING ONES GLASSES WITH EMBEDDED METAL AND SULFIDES (GEMS) AND ABUNDANT ORGANIC MATTER. THESE COMPONENTS ALSO INCLUDE INTERSTELLAR MATERIALS AND BOTH HIGH AND LOW-TEMPERATURE NEBULAR SOLIDS. THE MAIN IMPETUS FOR THE STARDUST SPACE MISSION WAS TO RETURN FOR ANALYSIS BONA FIDE SAMPLES FROM THE COMET WILD 2. RECENTLY PARTICLES INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM CP-IDPS (NOGUCHI ET AL. 2015) AND RARE ULTRA- CARBONACEOUS MICROMETEORITES (DUPRAT ET AL. 2010) WERE COLLECTED FROM MELTED ANTARCTIC SNOW. THERE ARE SEVERAL ADVANTAGES TO COLLECTING IDPS DIRECTLY FROM CLEAN ANTARCTIC AIR. WE CAN COLLECT AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE MORE PARTICLES FOR A FRACTION OF THE COST OF COLLECTING IDPS IN THE STRATOSPHERE. TIMED COLLECTIONS TARGETED TO COLLECT MATERIALS FROM SPECIFIC METEOR STREAMS OR LINKED TO SEASONAL VARIATIONS IN THE PARTICLE FLUX REQUIRE ONLY CHANGING THE FILTERS. AIR FILTERING AVOIDS HAVING TO COLLECT AND MELT LARGE VOLUMES OF SNOW IMPROVES TEMPORAL RESOLUTION AND ELIMINATES PARTICLE CONTACT WITH WATER DURING COLLECTION. AVOIDING CONTACT WITH MELT WATER INCREASES THE POSSIBILITY OF PRESERVING INTERESTING WATER-SOLUBLE OR EASILY ALTERED PHASES. OUR PROPOSED IDP COLLECTOR WILL USE ISOKINETIC SAMPLING AND FILTERING OF THE VERY CLEAN AIR STREAM AT SOUTH POLE TO COLLECT 300 900 IDPS PER MONTH (SIZE RANGE 5 50 M) BASED ON MEASURED STRATOSPHERIC IDP CONCENTRATIONS (BROWNLEE ET AL. 1977 ZOLENSKY AND MACKINNON 1985). BACKGROUND AEROSOL CONCENTRATION AT SOUTH POLE IS LOW IN THE>3 M SIZE RANGE AND THE INTAKE WILL BE A FEW METERS ABOVE THE SURFACE TO MINIMIZE SNOW ENTRAINMENT AND PERMIT YEAR-ROUND COLLECTION. FOR THIS WORK WE WILL CATALOGUE EXTRATERRESTRIAL PARTICLES ON THE FILTERS ANALYZE THE ISOTOPIC CHEMICAL AND ELEMENTAL COMPOSITIONS AND DESCRIBE THE MICROSTRUCTURE OF REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLES. THE SAMPLES WILL LIKELY ORIGINATE FROM MANY OBJECTS ALLOWING US TO EXPAND OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THESE PRIMITIVE MATERIALS. BY TIME-STAMPING THE COLLECTIONS WE EXPECT TO LINK THE PARTICLES WITH SPECIFIC METEOR STREAMS. BY STUDYING THE ORGANICS THAT ALSO HAVE HIGH DEUTERIUM VALUES WE EXPECT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE COLD OUTER REGIONS OF THE PLANETARY DISK. THIS NEW COLLECTION WILL BE A VALUABLE RESOURCE FOR THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL-MATERIALS RESEARCH COMMUNITY WHICH IS CURRENTLY SAMPLELIMITED FOR PRIMITIVE MATERIALS. THE EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM'S STATED GOAL IS TO UNDERSTAND THE FORMATION AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND INCLUDES SAMPLE-BASED STUDIES OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL MATERIALS. THE PROPOSED WORK IS RELEVANT TO THIS NASA CALL AS IT AIMS TO COLLECT AND STUDY LARGE NUMBERS OF PRISTINE PRIMITIVE EXTRATERRESTRIAL MATERIALS WHOSE COMPOSITIONS AND MICROSTRUCTURES WILL PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO CONDITIONS THAT EXISTED EARLY IN THE FORMATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. IT WILL ALSO PROVIDE DATA ON THE TYPES AND FLUX OF ORGANIC MOLECULES ARRIVING ON EARTH