DARTMOUTH S CONTRIBUTION TO THE TEAM EFFORT OF THE COLLABORATIVE NASA PROJECT ENTITLED STRUCTURE-PROPERTY-PROCESSING CORRELATIONS IN FREEZE-CAST BIOMIMETIC MATERIALS WILL BE TO INVESTIGATE AND DETERMINE WITH CUSTOM-DESIGNED FREEZING STAGES ANALYTICAL TOOLS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MODELING EFFORT THE KINETICS OF THE ICE-PHASE GROWTH AND THE MECHANISMS BY WHICH THE GROWING ICE-CRYSTALS THUS ICE PHASE TEMPLATES THE POLYMER PHASE DURING ITS TRANSITION FROM A SOLUTION TO A GLASSY SOLID. THE WATER-BASED SYSTEM WILL BE COMPARED WITH MODEL SYSTEMS SUCH AS THAT OF TBA-WATER: (I) WITH LIGHT MICROSCOPY PERPENDICULAR TO THE MOVING FREEZING FRONT WE WISH TO OBSERVE THE FORMATION OF MULLINS- SEKERKA INSTABILITIES AND THEIR SUBSEQUENT REORGANIZATION INTO AN ARRAY OF CELLS OR DENDRITES AS A FUNCTION OF POLYMER CONCENTRATION AND COOLING RATES WHICH IS EQUAL TO THE PRODUCT OF VELOCITY AND THERMAL GRADIENT IN DIRECTIONAL SOLIDIFICATION; (II) WITH CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY PARALLEL TO THE FREEZING FRONT WE WISH TO OBSERVE AND DETERMINE UNDER WHICH EXACT PROCESSING CONDITIONS SUCH AS POLYMER CONCENTRATION AND COOLING RATE THE DIFFERENT STRUCTURES FORM ON EARTH IN PREPARATION OF EXPERIMENTS USING THE REFURBISHED PFMI IN SPACE. FINALLY THE RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL WORK WILL BE TRANSLATED INTO STRUCTURE-PROPERTY-PROCESSING CORRELATIONS FOR HIGHLY POROUS FREEZE-CAST MATERIALS (POLYMER CERAMIC METAL AND COMPOSITE) MADE ON EARTH SO THAT THEY CAN BE APPLIED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW AND IMPROVED FREEZE-CAST MATERIALS THAT ARE STRONG TOUGH AND LIGHTWEIGHT AND CAN BE CUSTOM-DESIGNED FOR A GIVEN APPLICATION. THE WORK EFFORT WILL PARALLEL THE FUNDING AND PHASE IN DURING YEARS 1 AND 2.