NASA advances wastewater recycling technology for future Moon and Mars missions

The mobile treatment unit separates waste streams for efficient recycling, integrating biological reactors and hydroponics to produce reusable water and nutrients.

June 4, 2026

2 min read

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Technicians prepare the Divergent Deployable Wastewater Treatment Facility, designed to turn crew wastewater into useful resources, for transport at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, April 21, 2026 (Photo and caption credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett).

A mobile wastewater treatment system developed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has arrived at University of North Dakota, where researchers and graduate students will test the technology under simulated lunar and Martian habitat conditions.

The Divergent Deployable Wastewater Treatment Facility is designed to support long-duration space missions by converting crew wastewater into reusable water and nutrient-rich resources for food production and other applications. NASA officials said the project is part of the agency’s broader effort to develop closed-loop life support systems that reduce dependence on Earth-based resupply missions.

Housed inside an 8.5-by-24-foot trailer, the mobile treatment facility combines three biological reactor systems, hydroponic crop production, water polishing equipment, environmental monitoring systems and autonomous process controls. The unit was designed as a deployable laboratory capable of traveling between testing sites as the technology matures.

Unlike traditional terrestrial wastewater systems, the facility treats waste streams separately to better manage the highly concentrated waste generated by small crews in confined environments. Urine, graywater, food waste and fecal waste are routed to different reactor systems optimized for each stream.

The treatment train includes an anaerobic phototrophic membrane bioreactor for food and fecal waste, a suspended aerobic membrane bioreactor for urine and flush water, and a membrane aerated biological reactor for graywater from hygiene and laundry activities. Together, the systems recover nutrients and prepare water for reuse while supporting a vertical hydroponic garden inside the trailer.

At the University of North Dakota, the system has been connected to the school’s Integrated Lunar/Martian Analog Habitat through a bathroom interface featuring a urine-diverting toilet, allowing researchers to study source-separated wastewater treatment in a habitat-like setting. Additional research teams are developing advanced membrane separation technologies intended to improve water recovery efficiency and system resilience for future extraterrestrial applications.

NASA officials said the testing campaign will help evaluate operational reliability, crew training requirements and long-term system performance under conditions intended to replicate the challenges of operating on the Moon or Mars.

The agency also is exploring how recovered wastewater resources could support future in-space manufacturing processes, including production of materials for 3D printing using lunar or Martian regolith.

Researchers said lessons learned from the project could inform future large-scale analog missions, including yearlong simulated Mars habitation studies planned at Johnson Space Center.