The research of one ISU professor might someday be used in a manned mission to Mars or in the doctor’s office. No one would notice, however, because Palaniappa Molian, professor of mechanical engineering, does research on nanofabrication — the engineering of structures so small they can’t be seen without a powerful microscope.

Molian, who in December received a $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study the small machines for three years, said the structures range in size between one nanometer (10^ -9 meters) and 100 nanometers.

One application for such a structure would be in the production of tiny catheters, Molian said.

“There is a lot of interest in implementing such devices in nanoplumbing components. They want to pump a small amount of fluid into the body,” he said.

Nanostructures are manufactured using lasers that shine high-intensity beams on the materials for very short periods of time, Molian said. The beams shine for one femtosecond (10^ -15 seconds), producing one terrawatt (10^ 12 watts) of energy.

Molian said the materials commonly used for nanostructures are polymers, which are organic materials, and stainless steel.

He said when the structures have been created, the finished product can be tested using powerful microscopes.

“We take a top-down approach, starting with larger objects and making them smaller and smaller,” he said.

The technology also can be used in many fields, including medical diagnosis, genetic engineering and electronics, Molian said.

“We are into one of the high-tech fields where a lot of things are going to happen in the near future,” he said.

Molian is currently working alone on the project, but he said he plans to form a team of researchers soon.

Marc Porter, professor of chemistry, said Molian’s research will provide “important new capabilities to create a variety of systems.”

Porter, director of the ISU Microanalytical Instrumentation Center, said the technology may eventually be used in the miniaturization of instruments to be used on a spacecraft to Mars. He said nanotechnology could be used to make small filtering systems to recycle liquid waste inside the astronauts.

Molian said he plans to receive other research money from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and from Clark-MXR, a company in Michigan that manufactures the lasers used in his research.