Moon News
MOON DAILY
NASA seeks innovators for lunar waste competition
illustration only
NASA seeks innovators for lunar waste competition
by Savannah Bullard for MSFC News
Huntsville AL (SPX) Oct 03, 2024

A new NASA competition, the LunaRecycle Challenge, is open and offering $3 million in prizes for innovations in recycling material waste on deep space missions.

As NASA continues efforts toward long-duration human space travel, including building a sustained human presence on the Moon through its Artemis missions, the agency needs novel solutions for processing inorganic waste streams like food packaging, discarded clothing, and science experiment materials. While previous efforts focused on the reduction of trash mass and volume, this challenge will prioritize technologies for recycling waste into usable products needed for off-planet science and exploration activities.

NASA's LunaRecycle Challenge will incentivize the design and development of energy-efficient, low-mass, and low-impact recycling solutions that address physical waste streams and improve the sustainability of longer-duration lunar missions. Through the power of open innovation, which draws on the public's ingenuity and creativity to find solutions, NASA can restructure the agency's approach to waste management, support the future of space travel, and revolutionize waste treatments on Earth, leading to greater sustainability on our home planet and beyond.

"Operating sustainably is an important consideration for NASA as we make discoveries and conduct research both away from home and on Earth," said Amy Kaminski, program executive for NASA's Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program. "With this challenge, we are seeking the public's innovative approaches to waste management on the Moon and aim to take lessons learned back to Earth for the benefit of all."

NASA's LunaRecycle Challenge will offer two competition tracks: a Prototype Build track and a Digital Twin track. The Prototype Build Track focuses on designing and developing hardware components and systems for recycling one or more solid waste streams on the lunar surface. The Digital Twin Track focuses on designing a virtual replica of a complete system for recycling solid waste streams on the lunar surface and manufacturing end products. Offering a Digital Twin track further lowers the barrier of entry for global solvers to participate in NASA Centennial Challenges and contribute to agency missions and initiatives.

Teams will have the opportunity to compete in either or both competition tracks, each of which will carry its own share of the prize purse.

The LunaRecycle Challenge also will address some of the aerospace community's top technical challenges. In July 2024, NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate released a ranked list of 187 technology areas requiring further development to meet future exploration, science, and other mission needs. The results integrated inputs from NASA mission directorates and centers, industry organizations, government agencies, academia, and other interested individuals to help guide NASA's space technology development and investments. This list and subsequent updates will help inform future Centennial Challenges.

The three technological needs that LunaRecycle will address include logistics tracking, clothing, and trash management for habitation; in-space and on-surface manufacturing of parts and products; and in-space and on-surface manufacturing from recycled and reused materials.

"I am pleased that NASA's LunaRecycle Challenge will contribute to solutions pertaining to technological needs within advanced manufacturing and habitats," said Kim Krome, acting program manager for agency's Centennial Challenges, and challenge manager of LunaRecycle. "We are very excited to see what solutions our global competitors generate, and we are eager for this challenge to serve as a positive catalyst for bringing the agency, and humanity, closer to exploring worlds beyond our own."

NASA has contracted The University of Alabama to be the allied partner for the duration of the challenge. The university, based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will coordinate with former Centennial Challenge winner AI Spacefactory to facilitate the challenge and manage its competitors.

To register as a participant in NASA's LunaRecycle Challenge, visit here.

NASA's LunaRecycle Challenge is led by the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, with support from Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The competition is a NASA's Centennial Challenge, based at NASA Marshall. Centennial Challenges are part of NASA's Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program within the agency's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

Related Links
NASA LunaRecycle Challenge
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
MOON DAILY
What is the Moon's true origin story
Erie PA (SPX) Oct 03, 2024
Over six missions to the moon, from 1969 to 1972, Apollo astronauts collected more than 800 pounds of lunar rock and soil. Chemical and isotopic analysis of that material showed that it was similar to the rock and soil on Earth: calcium-rich, basaltic and dating to about 60 million years after the solar system formed. Using that data, the planetary scientists who gathered at the Kona Conference in Hawaii in 1984 came to the consensus that the moon formed from debris after a collision on the young ... read more

MOON DAILY
Crew completes simulated Mars Mission at JSC

Mars' missing atmosphere could be hiding in plain sight

Martian rocks shed light on planet's ancient climate

A Striped Surprise

MOON DAILY
New analysis of Cassini data yields insights into Titan's seas

MOON DAILY
Webb telescope detects carbon dioxide on Pluto's largest moon

SwRI team detects carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on Pluto's moon Charon

Europa Clipper encapsulated ahead of launch

The PI's Perspective: The Science Never Sleeps

MOON DAILY
Space Command working with Office of Space Commerce for spaceflight safety

Two UMD space probes advance to next round of NASA's major mission selection

An interstellar instrument takes a final bow

Rutgers awarded $607,000 USDA grant to pioneer electroponics technology

MOON DAILY
New Technique Enables Mass Production of Metal Nanowires

MOON DAILY
Northrop Grumman selected to lead production of hypersonic interceptor

Last rocket motor test paves way for Vega-C launch

Vulcan Rocket Lifts Off After Delay for Certification Mission

Nuclear rockets could travel to Mars in half the time

MOON DAILY
Shenzhou XIX crew to launch as Shenzhou XVIII returns

Xi emphasizes China's drive to lead in space exploration

China launches Yaogan 43B remote-sensing satellites from Xichang

Shenzhou-18 Crew Tests Fire Alarms and Conducts Medical Procedures in Space

MOON DAILY
NASA laser comms dmonstration sets new deep space record

CesiumAstro introduces versatile integrated phased array satellite platform

Oracle to invest $6.5 bn in Malaysian cloud services region

Meta says to produce virtual reality headsets in Vietnam

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.