MIT team clinches top prize in NASA's LunaRecycle Phase-2 competition

NASA’s LunaRecycle Challenge Phase 2 concluded with MIT’s CERBERUZ team receiving the top award and a total of $775,000 for their dual-track victory. Their technology pulverizes assorted trash, including Zotek foam, into a fine powder that can be fed into injection-molded parts or 3D-printing filament, turning waste into usable material. The two-phase, $3 million competition, managed by NASA’s Centennial Challenges at Marshall Space Flight Center and partnered with the University of Alabama’s Lee J. Styslinger Jr. College of Engineering, gathered 14 finalist teams in Tuscaloosa from Aug. 24-28.

Teams presented physical prototypes and, for some, digital-twin models that simulate the recycling process. In addition to MIT, nine other teams earned awards across categories such as mass efficiency, innovation and public voting. NASA officials highlighted the rapid progression from concept to prototype as a hallmark of the agency’s prize-based innovation model.