NASA Seeks Innovators for Lunar Waste Competition 

By Savannah Bullard 

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: lunarecyclechallenge.ua.edu. 

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.  

For more information on LunaRecycle, visit: 

Jasmine Hopkins 
Headquarters, Washington 
321-432-4624 
jasmine.s.hopkins@nasa.gov  

Lane Figueroa 
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 
256-544-0034 
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov   

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NASA Astronaut Tracy C. Dyson to Discuss Science, Station Mission

NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson will share details of her recent six-month mission aboard the International Space Station in a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT Friday, Oct. 4, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The news conference will air live on NASA+ and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

Media interested in participating in person must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom no later than 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3, at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov.

Media wishing to participate by phone must contact the newsroom no later than two hours before the start of the event. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. To ask questions by phone, media must dial into the news conference no later than 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. Questions may also be submitted on social media by using #AskNASA.

Spanning 184 days in space, Dyson’s third spaceflight covered 2,944 orbits of the Earth and a 78-million-mile journey as an Expedition 70/71 flight engineer. Dyson also conducted one spacewalk of 31 minutes, bringing her career total to 23 hours, 20 minutes on four spacewalks. Dyson returned to Earth on Sept. 23, as planned, along with her crewmates, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub.

Dyson launched on March 23 and arrived at the station March 25 alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya were aboard the station for 12 days before returning home with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara on April 6.

While aboard the orbiting lab, Dyson conducted dozens of scientific and technology activities to benefit future exploration in space and life back on Earth. She remotely controlled a robot on Earth’s surface from a computer aboard the station and evaluated orbit-to-ground operations. She operated a 3D bioprinter to print cardiac tissue samples, which could advance technology for creating replacement organs and tissues for transplants on Earth.

Dyson also participated in the crystallization of model proteins to evaluate the performance of hardware that could be used for pharmaceutical production and ran a program that uses student-designed software to control the station’s free-flying robots, inspiring the next generation of innovators.

Learn more about space station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook, ISS Instagram, and the space station blog.

-end-

Joshua Finch / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov

Courtney Beasley
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
courtney.m.beasley@nasa.gov

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Mariachi and Moonshots: Melissa Moreno Orchestrates Gateway Communications  

As a radio frequency wireless engineer in NASA’s Johnson Space Center Avionic Systems Division in Houston, Melissa Moreno makes an impact in space exploration while proudly sharing her cultural heritage in the NASA community. 

Moreno works in the Electronic Systems Test Laboratory, developing communication systems critical to Gateway, NASA’s first lunar-orbiting space station. But her success stretches far beyond the lab.   

In addition to her technical work, Moreno co-founded Johnson’s Hispanic Employee Resource Group’s mariachi ensemble, Mariachi Celestial. She performs as a violinist and vocalist at employee events and community engagements.  

“Mariachi is a large part of my culture and identity, and I enjoy sharing it,” said Moreno.

Originally from New Mexico, Moreno earned her master’s degree in electrical engineering from New Mexico State University—a milestone she considers her greatest achievement. “I am the only one in my family that has graduated with a master’s in engineering,” she said.  

Working on Gateway has taken Moreno to various NASA facilities, where she collaborates with engineers across the country to develop the lunar outpost. She also supports communication testing for the International Space Station Program as needed. “This has been an invaluable experience for me,” said Moreno.  

Her career has not come without challenges. As a young Hispanic woman in engineering, Moreno has faced self-doubt and the pressure of perfectionism. “I can be very hard on myself,” she said. “While I’ve made progress, I’m still working on overcoming these challenges by thinking positively, believing in myself, and doing my absolute best.” 

One key lesson she has learned along the way is the importance of adaptability. “There are times when things don’t go as planned, and adapting to such situations is important for continued success,” she said. 

Moreno is also a strong advocate for NASA’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. “NASA should continue to highlight stories that showcase diversity in the workplace because they can inspire current and future underrepresented groups at NASA,” she said.   

Looking ahead, Moreno is excited about NASA’s plans to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, Gateway’s orbit around the Moon, and the eventual human landing on Mars.   

“I hope to pass on dedication and passion for the Artemis campaign,” she said.  

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Sumer Loggins

Station Science Top News: Sept. 27, 2024

Researchers found that long-duration spaceflight affected the mechanical properties of eye tissues, including reducing the stiffness of tissue around the eyeball. A better understanding of these changes could help researchers prevent, diagnose, and treat the vision impairment often seen in crew members.

SANSORI, a Canadian Space Agency investigation, examined whether reduced stiffness of eye tissue contributes to vision impairment in astronauts on long-term missions. This condition, known as Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome, or SANS, includes a range of physical changes to the eyes. This paper suggests that biomechanical changes in the eye caused by microgravity contribute to SANS. On Earth, changes in the tissue around the eyeball (the scleral wall or white of the eye) related to ocular rigidity have been associated with aging and pathological conditions such as glaucoma and myopia.

In April 2022, researchers identified more than 80 Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) such as Emissions of Light and Very-Low-Frequency perturbations from Electro-magnetic pulses (ELVES) and blue corona discharges, rare phenomena that are part of a group of upper atmospheric thunderstorm discharges called blue optical emissions. Insights into blue optical emissions could help scientists understand how thunderstorms affect Earth’s atmosphere and help improve meteorological and climatological predictions.

ILAN-ES (Ax-1) collected images of lightning and TLEs during Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1). TLEs are electrical phenomena above thunderstorms, which include ELVES. Researchers combined observations from the International Space Station with a global network of ground-based cameras to calculate the energy, structure, and other parameters of TLEs. This work contributes to understanding of these events and their relationship to lightning, geographic distribution, and global occurrence rate.

Read more here.

Two civilian astronauts from the 17-day Ax-1 mission showed normal ranges for 14 health biomarkers and both maintained good cardiac, liver, and renal health as well as adequate glucose and electrolyte balance. As more civilians travel to space, scientists need to assess their health risks and develop mitigation measures, and this study provides a baseline for beginning that process.

Cardioprotection Ax-1 analyzed cardiovascular changes in private astronaut mission crew members. Human research in space has focused on professional astronauts, but as spaceflight opportunities expand, more diverse populations have a chance to experience the space environment. The Ax-1 mission provided an opportunity to monitor civilian responses to space and yielded an initial record of civilian in-flight bioanalytics.

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Aerospace Medicine Clerkship

The application window for the April 2025 session is open. The next available session will convene Monday, March 31- Friday, April 25. Applications for the April 2025 session will close on Monday, December 2, 2024 at 1159 CT.

If you have read the FAQ and still have questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me via email at amy.n.honors@nasa.gov, as hybrid work schedules are in place at JSC, and office phones may be manned sporadically until further notice.​

When submitting your application, electronic submissions are strongly preferred. Please refer to the instructions in the application document and ensure that you are using a secure encrypted platform that may require a password or code to access upon receipt. (O365 is the preferred encryption platform, and if your institution has a similar platform, this may be used as well). Not encrypted applications will not be accepted and must be deleted immediately to adhere to NASA JSC policies to protect and handle your PII accordingly. Also, please confirm application receipt and do not assume your application has been received unless confirmed via email by Amy Honors.

Work Tour Description

The four-week Aerospace Medicine Clerkship is offered twice annually during April and October at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (located in Houston, TX) and typically begins the first Monday and concludes on the last Friday of the month. The clerkship involves formal lectures on space medicine topics and issues, familiarization with the medical aspects of International Space Station operations, design, and function as well as Exploration Medical Capability for deep space exploration. Clerkship participants are required to complete a research project and scientific poster with an accompanying 250 word abstract in a current focus area of space medicine, which will be presented in an open forum poster session for not only the JSC Space Medicine Operations and clinical community, but other interested divisions/elements at JSC.

Eligibility Requirements

• Interested persons must be a US Citizen (or hold dual citizenship to include the US)
• The MINIMUM educational requirement is to be in your final year of medical school. (residents and attending physicians are eligible to apply)
• Must have an interest in Aerospace Medicine and plan to apply in future career goals

Application and Selection Process

All applicants must include the following:

• Application
• Statement of Interest
• Curriculum vitae (CV)
• A letter of good standing and recommendation from the school or institution and an official transcript (or diploma if applicable) from the medical school is required. 

Applications are due June 1st for the October clerkship and December 1st for the April clerkship.

Upon completion of the application period, a maximum of 20 students will be selected for each of the clerkships by a committee of NASA flight surgeons and other Space Medicine Training and or Clinical Operations team members. 

Selection is based upon demonstrated interest and career goals involving Aerospace Medicine, academic standing, the content of a Dean’s recommendation (or direct supervisor if graduated) *, research, and work experience.

* Letter can be from the medical school Dean or Departmental Dean. Supervisor letter would apply to those beyond the 4th year and can provide their diploma.

You must send your application package via a secure email platform. Many institutions have a secure email platform in which I will create an account/password to access your attachments. Please do not submit your application via regular email as I cannot open them and they will be deleted.

***The email platform MUST be secure/encrypted to comply with NASA/JSC policies to protect your Private Identifiable Information (PII) and in order for your application to be accepted.***

If you find it necessary to Mail your application, please use USPS or a courier to send your application to:

Amy N. Honors
NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
Mail Code SD222
2101 NASA Parkway
Houston, Texas 77058 

Logistics of the Clerkship

All costs incurred during the clerkship are your responsibility. NASA JSC or KBR provides no monies for the clerkship.

If selected, to assist with lodging, you will be supplied with access to our local JSC Housing Co-Op as well as recommendations for local hotels, extended stays, and areas to target for AirBnB and VRBO, etc.

You will be supplied with a computer to be used for research purposes only, and access to several collaborative work areas on-site at JSC.

Participants are responsible for their transportation during the clerkship. Participants are also encouraged to carpool with other clerks.

During The Clerkship

During the clerkship, you will be exposed to a variety of space medicine topics given in presentations, lectures, and tours, such as the medical equipment available to crew members in space, space physiology, radiation monitoring, tours of the training facilities, etc. The daily activities will include both presentations and tours, as well as time for you to work on your project. The schedules are always subject to change. You will be present/available M-F 8:00 am – 5:00 pm. (40 hrs/week) and no required activities scheduled on the weekends.

This clerkship is considered an educational/research clerkship and is non-clinical. Therefore, contact/interaction with patients during the clerkship should not be expected.

Point of Contact

Amy Honors      281-483-7050

Additional Resources for Aerospace Medicine

Below are additional resources for Aerospace Medicine knowledge and networking, some of which may also provide opportunities for non-U.S. citizens.** 

• Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) 
• Aerospace Medicine Student and Resident Organization (AMSRO)
• University of Texas Medical Branch Principles of Aviation and Space Medicine Short course. Information: 4-week course, also 4th/final year of medical school eligibility. DOES accept foreign national applications. It has many aspects that are not in the clerkship, such as commercial spaceflight and general aviation medicine.   
• NASA Internships – wide range of opportunities.

Clerkship FAQ’s

Aerospace Medicine Clerkship FAQ’s (PDF, 190KB)

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