NASA awards $775,000 to MIT lunar recycling system

(SpaceEnergy) NASA has awarded $775,000 to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology team developing a system that converts mixed spacecraft waste into feedstock for new manufactured parts.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team won first prize in Phase 2 of NASA’s LunaRecycle Challenge with a process that grinds mixed waste into a fine powder for injection moulding or 3D-printing filament.

NASA said the system can process materials including fabrics, plastics, foam and metals, with Zotek foam used as reinforcement rather than removed as contamination. The team won both the prototype development and digital twin tracks.

Phase 2 involved 14 finalist teams demonstrating recycling prototypes from 24 to 28 August at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The wider LunaRecycle Challenge is a $3 million competition intended to reduce waste during missions to the Moon and deep space while producing reusable material.

Other award-winning concepts included microwave processing of lunar anthropogenic waste, carbon recovery and feedstock transformation, and systems designed to handle multiple waste streams.

NASA said the competition supports technology development for sustained exploration where transporting replacement materials from Earth is costly and logistically constrained.