You’re a good person. And a good person puts their recyclable waste in the yellow bin. In fact, at night you sometimes dream of soaring into space, where you also separate your waste. It’s your passion, and I admire you for that. Now, what if I told you that NASA is looking for brilliant minds to revolutionize recycling… on the Moon? Yes indeed, the American space agency has launched a challenge: the LunaRecycle Challenge. Its goal is to find innovative solutions for recycling waste during future long-duration lunar missions. It’s a real puzzle in such an extreme environment!
Imagine being on the Moon for a year, with waste piling up and limited resources. It wouldn’t be a walk in the park, as Marty would say. Yet, this is the scenario that NASA anticipates for its upcoming missions. Managing waste in such a context is therefore a major challenge for the agency and its astronauts. Every kilogram matters in space, whether in terms of cost or logistics, which underscores the importance of this contest; it could not only transform space exploration but also influence our recycling practices here on Earth.
If this excites you, here’s how to participate in the LunaRecycle Challenge. But before you dive right in, it’s essential to understand the issues at hand. NASA has identified several types of waste to address: food packaging, used clothing, faulty electronic equipment, and even biological waste. Your mission will be to design solutions that recycle as much of this waste as possible, producing reusable resources for the mission. All this, as I mentioned, under extreme lunar conditions: reduced gravity, extreme temperatures, absence of atmosphere, and abrasive dust.
The contest has two components:
- Prototype Build: Design and construct a physical prototype of your recycling solution.
- Digital Twin: Create a detailed digital simulation of your system, also known as a digital twin. This twin is an accurate virtual replica of a real system, allowing for testing and optimization of your solution without immediately building a physical prototype.
I believe that success in this challenge relies on collaboration, so if I have one piece of advice for you, it’s to surround yourself with a multidisciplinary team: engineers, chemists, designers, robotics experts, and digital modeling specialists. The diversity of skills is a major asset for innovating and approaching this problem from various angles.
Now, visit the official LunaRecycle Challenge website and fill out the registration form before March 31, 2025. That gives you some time to develop and refine your project.
However, before you fully dive into this adventure, let me offer some principles to guide your thinking:
- Miniaturization: Space is limited on the Moon. Every cubic centimeter counts.
- Automation: Reducing human intervention minimizes risks for the crew.
- Energy Efficiency: Resources are precious. Calculate your system’s power consumption to ensure it aligns with available resources.
- Maximal Efficiency: The more you recycle, the less waste there is to manage. For example, recycling 71% of textiles (54% clothing, 17% towels) would be a significant advancement.
- Adaptation to Lunar Conditions: Your system must withstand abrasive dust, temperature variations, and operate in the absence of atmosphere.
The booklet that compiles all the rules to follow can be found here (PDF).
If you’re participating in the Digital Twin category, this digital replica will allow you to simulate how your system functions in lunar conditions, optimize your designs, and foresee potential problems. It’s truly a valuable tool for perfecting your solution without excessive costs.
And once your project is complete, be sure to double-check that you meet all the contest criteria and provide detailed documentation of your process, including your experiences, both successes and failures, as NASA places great emphasis on scientific rigor and transparency.
Finally, if your project is selected, you could win up to $750,000 for Phase 1! And that’s just the beginning, as the competition offers a total prize pool of $3 million, divided between the two phases and both categories of the contest. But beyond the financial aspect, it’s a unique opportunity to contribute to the future of space exploration.”
With this contest, NASA hopes that the solutions developed will also have impacts on Earth. Efficient and compact recycling systems could be deployed in remote areas or during emergencies, thereby improving our waste management and preserving our planet.
To maximize your chances, I’d like to offer you some advice, space innovators:
- Innovate Boldly: Don’t hesitate to explore emerging technologies like 3D printing or biofabrication.
- Draw Inspiration from Nature: Natural ecosystems are recycling masters. Why not draw inspiration from them to create virtuous cycles?
- Versatility: A multifunctional system is a plus in space. Can it also produce energy or purify air?
- Plan for Failures: In space, a failure can be critical. Design a robust system that is easily repairable and includes redundant features.
- Ease of Use: Your solution will be used by astronauts who may not be experts in recycling. It must be intuitive and easy to operate.
And remember, in space, no one can hear you scream with joy… but on Earth, your genius will be celebrated. So get to work, my future lunar recycling heroes!
