I am presently involved in two research areas. (1) The polar ionosphere contains meteoritic dust particles that are the nucleation sites for icy cloud particles. Students and I construct instruments for rockets that return data from 80-120 km altitude on the charge-to-mass ratio and number density of these particles so their characteristics can be entered into models of the ionosphere. Experiments in the lab seek to reproduce plasma conditions in the ionosphere. (2) I am an investigator in the Colorado Center for Lunar Dust and Atmospheric studies. We construct models of the dusty lunar surface in the laboratory and expose the surfaces to ultraviolet light and plasma to simulate the plasma environment on the lunar surface. The goal is to characterize the surface to facilitate NASA's return to the Moon and to design instruments that will return data on the plasma and charged dust at the lunar surface.