MIT team wins first prize in NASA LunaRecycle Phase 2

NASA announced that a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been awarded the first‑place prize for Phase 2 of its LunaRecycle Challenge. The competition, which ran from 2023 to 2024, tasked participants with devising methods to reduce waste on lunar and deep‑space missions by recycling everyday materials such as fabrics, plastics, foam, and metals. MIT’s “Composites for Extraterrestrial Recycling By Engineering the Reuse and Upcycling of Zotek” (CERBERUZ) team—composed of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students—won the top prize and received a total of $775,000 in awards.

The CERBERUZ solution centers on a compact processing unit that grinds mixed trash into a fine powder, enabling the material to be reconstituted into new composites suitable for use in space habitats and equipment. By converting heterogeneous waste streams into reusable building blocks, the technology promises to cut the mass of supplies that must be launched from Earth, thereby lowering launch costs and improving mission sustainability. NASA’s LunaRecycle Challenge aimed to spur such innovations, and the MIT team’s approach exemplifies the practical engineering required for long‑duration spaceflight.

With the award, MIT will receive funding to further develop and test the CERBERUZ system in simulated lunar environments. The project underscores the growing emphasis on in‑situ resource utilization and waste minimization in future lunar and interplanetary exploration, positioning MIT as a leader in the emerging field of extraterrestrial recycling.