A mobile wastewater treatment system developed at NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center has been shipped to the University of North Dakota, where researchers will evaluate its performance under conditions designed to simulate long-duration missions on the Moon and Mars.
The Divergent Deployable Wastewater Treatment Facility is designed to convert crew wastewater into reusable resources, supporting NASA’s goal of creating self-sustaining habitats for future lunar and Martian explorers. The system will be integrated with the university’s Integrated Lunar/Martian Analog Habitat, allowing researchers to assess operational reliability, crew training requirements, and resource recovery performance in a realistic habitat environment.
“NASA’s Artemis program is laying the groundwork for a sustained human presence on the Moon, where habitats will need to operate far from the steady resupply chain that supports astronauts in partial gravity,” said Luke Roberson, surface water systems lead within the Mars Campaign Office at NASA Kennedy, in a statement. “To solve that challenge, we are developing the future of sustainable lunar surface systems to process wastewater into nutrient feedstocks for plants and biomanufacturing.”
Housed within an 8.5-by-24-foot trailer, the facility combines three specialized bioreactors, a hydroponic vertical garden, water-polishing equipment, environmental monitoring systems, autonomous controls, and safety systems. Unlike conventional terrestrial treatment systems, it uses a divergent treatment approach that keeps waste streams separate, enabling more efficient processing of highly concentrated wastewater generated by small crews.
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The system includes an anaerobic phototrophic membrane bioreactor for fecal and food waste, a suspended aerobic membrane bioreactor for urine and flush water, and a membrane aerated biological reactor for greywater. Together, the reactors recover nutrients and prepare water for reuse while supplying a hydroponic garden with nutrient-rich solutions derived from treated waste.
Researchers are also developing advanced membrane separation technologies to improve water recovery, contaminant removal, and system resilience. The testing program is intended to advance the technology from laboratory validation toward demonstration in a habitat-scale analog environment and could support future year-long Mars mission simulations.
The project forms part of NASA’s Bioregenerative Life Support Systems initiative, which aims to reduce dependence on Earth-supplied resources by recycling water and nutrients, supporting crop production, and minimizing waste. NASA is also investigating whether recovered wastewater nutrients could support microbial production of materials such as polylactic acid, which could potentially be used in 3D printing applications on the Moon or Mars.
Officials say the testing campaign represents an important step toward developing closed-loop life support systems capable of sustaining human crews during extended missions beyond Earth.
