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NASA Awards First Prize in Phase 2 of Agency’s LunaRecycle Challenge
NASA awarded an MIT team the first prize in Phase 2 of the LunaRecycle Challenge for developing waste-recycling technology. The CERBERUZ project repurposes materials like plastics and foam into 3D-printing filament or injection-mold parts.
Why it matters
Recycling waste in deep space reduces the need to transport new materials from Earth, making long-term lunar or deep space missions more sustainable. These innovations may also have practical applications for waste management on Earth.
The details
The LunaRecycle Challenge is a $3 million, two-phase competition held in partnership with The University of Alabama. Other prize winners included Terasynth, Penn State's RECLAIM, Cislune, and Team Lovegrove. Phase 1 of the competition concluded in 2025 and saw more than 1,200 registrations.
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Key connections
Massachusetts Institute of Technology owns Composites for Extraterrestrial Recycling By Engineering the Reuse and Upcycling of Zotek (CERBERUZ)
The MIT team developed CERBERUZ and won first prize in NASA's LunaRecycle Challenge.
Terasynth owns Lunar Re-Forge System
Terasynth entered the Lunar Re-Forge System in the LunaRecycle Challenge.
RECLAIM owns Resource Extraction and Conversion from Lunar Anthropogenic Inputs with Microwaves (RECLAIM)
The RECLAIM team from Penn State University developed the RECLAIM system.
Cislune owns Carbon Recovery and Feedstock Transformation for Extraterrestrial Reuse (CRAFTER)
Cislune entered the CRAFTER system in the LunaRecycle Challenge.
Team Lovegrove owns LunaBrix
Team Lovegrove from Bob Jones University entered LunaBrix in the LunaRecycle Challenge.
Moon Made owns Fiber Forge
Moon Made entered Fiber Forge in the LunaRecycle Challenge digital twin track.
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University of Alabama Lee J. Styslinger Jr. College of Engineering is a partner of NASA
LunaRecycle is a two-phase competition run in partnership with the college, which hosted the Phase 2 finale in Tuscaloosa.
Centennial Challenges is a member of NASA
Centennial Challenges is part of NASA's Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program within the Research and Technology Mission Directorate.
Jennifer Edmunson works at Centennial Challenges
Jennifer Edmunson is program manager for Centennial Challenges at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
Chris Frangione works at Amentum
Chris Frangione manages the LunaRecycle Challenge through Amentum Space Exploration Division.
Amentum is related to Centennial Challenges
Amentum Space Exploration Division is contracted to support NASA's Centennial Challenges, including LunaRecycle.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology competes with Terasynth
Both teams competed as finalists in the LunaRecycle Challenge Phase 2.
Terasynth competes with RECLAIM
Both teams competed as finalists in the LunaRecycle Challenge Phase 2.
Both teams competed as finalists in the LunaRecycle Challenge Phase 2.
Cislune competes with Team Lovegrove
Both teams competed as finalists in the LunaRecycle Challenge Phase 2.
Team Lovegrove competes with Moon Made
Both teams competed as finalists in the LunaRecycle Challenge Phase 2.
Moon Made competes with Waste Parrot Technologies
Both teams competed as finalists in the LunaRecycle Challenge Phase 2.
Composites for Extraterrestrial Recycling By Engineering the Reuse and Upcycling of Zotek (CERBERUZ) uses Digital Twin
The MIT team won both the prototype and digital twin tracks with CERBERUZ.
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