Information about the optical characteristics and physical processes involving cosmic dust particles is vital for interpretation of astronomical observations and an understanding of the formation and processing of dust in the evolutionary cycle of matter in the interstellar medium. Cosmic dust particles are formed in a variety of astrophysical environments such as in cool stellar outflows and circumstellar envelopes. Definitive knowledge of the nature, composition, and physical processes of cosmic dust grains, however, can only be inferred from astronomical observations through laboratory experiments on the analogs of hypothesized dust particles and with modeling calculations. Laboratory investigations of the nature, composition, and optical characteristics of cosmic dust particles are being carried out at many institutions with a variety of experimental techniques. Despite a wealth of available data, however, many basic issues remain unresolved.

An experimental facility based on suspension of dust particles in electrodynamic balance in a pressure/temperature controlled environment in a cavity has been operational at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and is currently being employed for studies of dust particle charging mechanisms using electron beams and with UV radiation (Venturini et al.). In this paper, we discuss two general classes of experiments under planning stages that may be simultaneously carried out on this facility for cosmic dust investigations (i) Infrared optical characteristics (extinction coefficients and scattering phase functions) of the analogs of hypothesized of cosmic dust particles, such as natural and synthetic amorphous silicates with varying compositions, amorphous carbon grains, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and icy core-mantle particles etc. The initial spectral range under consideration is 1-25 m m, to be extended to the far infrared region in the future (ii) Condensation of volatile gases on nucleus dust particles to be investigated for planetary and astrophysical environments.