Q&A WITH A MOON RECYCLER

With frequent lunar missions on the horizon, focus is turning toward the sustainable use and reuse of the materials that will be left on the surface

- Melissa Brobby

You are looking at the recycling of man-made materials left behind on the lunar surface. What led you to focus your research on this area?

The idea of having a habitat on the Moon was for a long time one for the distant future, but a few years ago it became apparent that the idea had become more of a serious one. At the same time, space companies such as SpaceX are trying to bring down the cost of launching things into space.

However, once you've got the costs down, and once you can think about putting a habitat on the Moon, you then have the same issues that we have on Earth: how do you make stuff? How do you use it? How do you reuse it? So I set up a group to work with me on all aspects of how we can make things on the surface of the Moon, drawing on my background in extractive metallurgy.

How do you envision the recycling of materials would be achieved?