NASA is testing a mobile wastewater plant that could turn astronaut waste into food and spare parts

Shipping supplies to the Moon costs roughly $1,500 per kilogram — so NASA is building systems that turn astronaut waste into something useful instead. The agency has moved a prototype wastewater treatment facility from Kennedy Space Center to the University of North Dakota, where it is being tested inside a simulated lunar and Martian habitat. The goal is a closed-loop life support system that reduces how much cargo future Artemis crews need from Earth.

The hardware

The unit fits inside an 8.5-by-24-foot mobile trailer — roughly the size of a shipping container. Inside are three biological reactors, a vertical hydroponic farm, water-polishing hardware, and an autonomous control system. According to NASA's Kennedy Center, it is designed to handle separate waste streams — urine, fecal matter, and hygiene water from showers and laundry — for crews of four to eight people. Keeping those streams separate lets the system recover nutrients more efficiently than a conventional sewage plant.

The first reactor breaks down solid waste and food scraps into liquid fertilizer. The second and third handle urine and greywater, cycling treated water back into the drinking supply. The recovered fertilizer feeds directly into the hydroponic farm, where researchers are comparing crop growth rates against standard commercial nutrients.

Waste-to-plastic

The more ambitious part of the project is a biomanufacturing pathway. Certain microbes in the reactors produce lactic acid as they process waste. Researchers at the University of North Dakota are studying how to convert that lactic acid into polylactic acid — a bioplastic used in 3D printing. If it works at scale, a base could theoretically print replacement parts and structural components from what is otherwise sewage.

The tests are running inside the Integrated Lunar/Martian Analog Habitat, a facility designed to simulate the confined, resource-scarce conditions crews would face off-Earth. Results here are expected to feed into Johnson Space Center's yearlong Mars isolation analog studies, which inform the broader Artemis timeline for sustained human presence on the Moon.

The bigger picture

NASA's ISS already recycles about 90 percent of onboard water. Lunar systems face a harder challenge: smaller volumes, more extreme conditions, and no quick resupply option. Mars Campaign Office lead Luke Roberson has called closed-loop life support a prerequisite for long-duration missions, per the NASA release. The Divergent Deployable Wastewater Treatment Facility is one of the more concrete steps toward making that a reality — one trailer at a time.