When astronauts return to the Moon under NASA’s Artemis program, their mission won’t just involve exploration—they’ll also need to tackle sustainability. Unlike the Apollo era, when astronauts left behind bags of waste, discarded equipment, and even golf balls, future lunar crews will focus on recycling and reusing materials to reduce costs and preserve the Moon’s pristine environment.
Recycling for the Future
NASA’s new LunaRecycle program aims to address the logistical and environmental challenges of lunar exploration. The cost of transporting supplies to the Moon is astronomical—up to $1.2 million per kilogram. To minimize this, NASA is offering $3 million in prizes to innovators worldwide who develop creative ways to recycle materials on the lunar surface.
Jennifer Edmunson, who leads the LunaRecycle initiative, emphasized the importance of this approach. “Flying anything from Earth is so expensive,” she said. “Any kind of recycling we can do is beneficial not only to the economy but also to preserving the Moon as the amazing place it is.”
The program encourages ideas for repurposing plastics, metals, and packaging materials into useful tools, containers, or even artistic elements to make lunar habitats more livable.
Mining Lunar Artifacts
While iconic artifacts like Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 footprints and the remains of early Soviet probes will remain untouched as part of space heritage, other lunar debris may be fair game for recycling. NASA is considering repurposing parts of old spacecraft, such as aluminium from defunct landers and satellites.
However, extracting and processing materials on the Moon presents significant technical hurdles. Challenges include working in low gravity, dealing with abrasive lunar dust, and managing toxic byproducts in the vacuum of space.
“You’d be operating in low gravity and surrounded by lunar dust, which is sticky and abrasive,” explained Geoff Brooks, a professor specializing in sustainable mineral processing. Brooks is researching how to use solar energy to process lunar minerals, including developing a “lunar steel” using silicon rather than Earth’s carbon-based methods.
A Closed-Loop System
NASA is also looking to the International Space Station (ISS) for inspiration. On the ISS, 98% of water—including astronaut urine—is recycled into drinking water through advanced systems. A similar closed-loop system could be employed on the Moon, with human waste potentially used as fertilizer for growing food.
NASA’s push for sustainability marks a stark contrast to the Apollo missions, which left behind a mix of scientific instruments, memorabilia, and waste. Now, the Artemis program represents a new era of thoughtful exploration, blending innovation with environmental stewardship.
