In living nature, evolution has led to almost all surfaces being micro-topographically structured. This enables an incredible variety of fascinating surface functionalities. For example, these micro topographies can have antimicrobial properties to prevent microbial contamination. 

For the very diverse functionalities that our technical surfaces have to fulfill in structural and functional applications, we can therefore learn from living nature and gain an important, additional degree of freedom by tailoring the individual micro/nano topography of the surfaces for each functionality. Through the interference of several coherent laser beams (Direct Laser Interference Patterning - DLIP), we can create and project complex and perfectly periodic pattern geometries onto surfaces. Moreover, different structuring reactions and topographic effects can be triggered depending on the pulse length of a nano-, pico- or even femtosecond pulsed laser.

Prevention of microbial contamination onboard spacecrafts plays an essential role as microorganisms can cause damage to the integrity of the materials as well as pose a threat to the crew’s health. However, as microorganisms inhabit nearly every part of a human body, each crewed mission is accompanied by microorganisms, highlighting the need for novel decontamination approaches.

The lecture presents highlights of the first results of these joint extensive materials science-microbiology experiments on the ISS. An unusual stroke of luck is that the first astronaut from Saarland, Matthias Maurer, who recently spent 6 months on the ISS, where he participated in over 100 experiments completed his diploma studies in Materials Science & Engineering with Frank Muecklich at the Institute for Functional Materials at Saarland University.