NASA has posed a new challenge for innovators around the world by offering $3 million to anyone who can come up with a technology to help recycle human waste in space.
The LunaRecycle Challenge is inviting innovators who can develop technology that will help the agency in recycling astronauts' feces and urine on long-duration space flights and even Mars, Moon missions.
"NASA is committed to sustainable space exploration. As we prepare for future human space missions, there will be a need to consider how various waste streams, including solid waste, can be minimized—as well as how waste can be stored, processed, and recycled in a space environment so that little or no waste will need to be returned to Earth," the agency said.
Long-term solution
The goal of the two-phase competition focused on the design and development of recycling solutions is to not add more waste in space. Currently, there are 96 bags of human waste left behind by Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969 still on the moon. The waste was discarded to make room for lunar samples collected during the mission.
The new technological waste disposal system will be used in future space missions if selected.
{{/usCountry}}The new technological waste disposal system will be used in future space missions if selected.
{{/usCountry}}The space agency is currently reviewing the first round of proposals to decide which will advance to the next phase of the competition. The deadline for submissions for NASA's LunaRecycle Challenge ended on March 31, 2025 and the selected innovators will be revealed in May 2025.
With NASA aiming to send humans back to the moon in its Artemis program, waste recycling will help limit the amount of waste returned to Earth. The LunaRecycle Challenge is part of NASA's goal to take on long-term human missions on the moon.
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