NASA has awarded the first-place prize in Phase 2 of its LunaRecycle Challenge to the Composites for Extraterrestrial Recycling By Engineering the Reuse and Upcycling of Zotek (CERBERUZ) team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The group, composed of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students, earned $775,000 for their innovative approach to managing waste in space.
The winning technology processes mixed trash into a fine powder, which is then utilized as feedstock for 3D-printing filaments or injection-molded components. By repurposing materials like Zotek foam as reinforcement, the system avoids the need to separate contaminants. The MIT team achieved success in both the prototype development and digital twin modeling tracks of the competition.
The finale, held at The University of Alabama’s Lee J. Styslinger Jr. College of Engineering in Tuscaloosa, featured 14 finalist teams demonstrating their hardware and virtual models. Jennifer Edmunson, program manager for Centennial Challenges at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, noted that the competition successfully accelerated the development of these technologies from conceptual designs to functional prototypes in just two years.
The $3 million, two-phase competition aims to create recycling solutions that could benefit future deep space exploration while offering potential applications on Earth. Following the MIT team, several other groups were recognized for their contributions, including Terasynth, RECLAIM, Cislune, Team Lovegrove, Moon Made, and Waste Parrot Technologies, who received various awards for innovation, mass efficiency, and visualization.
This initiative is part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges, a program designed to engage the public in solving complex technical problems. The LunaRecycle Challenge is managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center in collaboration with The University of Alabama.
Source: NASA
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