Embry-Riddle Teams Reach NASA Finals With Moon-Mars Life Support Concepts

The Human Lander Challenge 2026 from NASA has two teams from ERAU entering the finals after successfully submitting the design concept addressing the most down-to-earth, but critical challenge of human exploration Environmental Control and Life Support.

In the first place, Human Lander Challenge is the competition organized by National Institute of Aerospace to develop Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) for NASA. The teams advancing to the finals have demonstrated their innovative concepts at the Huntsville, Alabama, for the evaluation by the NASA engineers and industry representatives.

For context, the ECLSS finalist concepts address two critical elements of life support in the exploration class missions oxygen recovery and water management. In fact, these are two key areas of life support without which sustainable human presence beyond the Earth orbit is impossible. The significance of the two ECLSS functions is related to their impact on the mass of the spacecraft, mission sustainment with resupply, and maintenance requirements for the systems.

The rationale for oxygen and water to be two focal points of ECLSS

The ECLSS is the combination of systems and processes for water recovery, air revitalization, and oxygen generation, according to NASA’s definition. These are the functions necessary for supporting human life in the spacecrafts such as the International Space Station (ISS), where wastewaters are treated and returned to the users, the carbon dioxide is removed from the air, and oxygen is produced by electrolysis. At the same time, the exploration-class missions beyond the Low-Earth orbit will require modifications to the current ECLSS due to the insufficient resupply capability, extended mission duration, and limited maintenance opportunities.

In fact, the longer the mission is and the farther it goes from the Earth, the more closed and self-sustaining it has to be. This is the rationale for NASA to shift towards the regenerative life support strategies, which recycle the consumables and thus reduce the dependence on the continuous resupply. Water recovery is the key to the exploration-class life support systems that will be able to sustain astronauts during the years-long missions. In particular, NASA reports that the water recovery systems on the ISS currently allow achieving the 98 percent water reuse a target that should be strived for in the future.

AETHER

The sustainable oxygen generation system is the concept developed by the Prescott team from the ERAU, which has advanced to the finals of the Human Lander Challenge. The main idea of their concept is to recycle the CO2 and to generate the oxygen for the crew to sustain the long-duration exploration-class missions.

In other words, AETHER is addressing the life support function of air revitalization and oxygen recovery, which are part of the ECLSS. The student Sanaya Nichani notes that in the era of lunar, Mars, and beyond planet missions, it is impossible to rely on the resupply of the consumables as it is too dangerous and expensive. In such missions the closed-loop life support is the only feasible way, which is why recycling is necessary.

According to the faculty advisor of ERAU’s Prescott campus, Dr. Siwei Fan, the significance of the work of her students is that they are not addressing one particular device, but rather the conceptual framework of the ECLSS in the spacecraft, the stations, and habitats on the Moon and Mars. This is the right approach that will eventually lead to the solution of a broader problem as all the life support functions have to work in concert. Any promising concept addressing one function of ECLSS such as the oxygen recovery will always be dependent on the architecture of the spacecraft.

AQUORA

The team from ERAU’s Daytona Beach campus has developed the concept also targeting the life-support functions of water recovery as they advanced to the finals of the Human Lander Challenge. According to the team, their AQUORA concept is the Advanced Quality Orbital Rehydration Assembly an improved water management system necessary to sustain the long-duration missions beyond the Earth. In particular, the concept makes use of the flight proven technologies of the ISS, such as the chilled water loop with the focus on mitigation of microbial contamination.

An interesting point that the lead of the project, Sumer Hernandez, shares regarding their concept is that building upon the validated technologies is actually the best choice that the students could make. In the context of the exploration-class missions, such as NASA’s Artemis program, life support technologies will not only have to process the water, but to ensure its potability for an extended period and sustain the crew.

The student noted that their concept was developed to meet the flexibility and extensibility goals of NASA by building upon the existing systems to enhance the crew support. Such approach will allow creating the system that can be trusted to operate in a confined spacecraft with the high risk of contamination and have the necessary redundancy. The lead of the project also explained that the AQUORA concept is focused on the trade-off analyses that NASA is particularly interested in during the initial stages of the system development. In addition to the functionality of the water management, the extensibility and flexibility to support other requirements are important for the concept.

A good sign that ERAU has two finalist concepts for the Human Lander Challenge 2026, and the two concepts are addressing two different areas of life support. The reason why both concepts matter is that they represent the two closed-loop processes that will significantly reduce the logistical burden of long-duration space missions. In particular, the oxygen recovery from the exhaled CO2 will decrease the dependence on the regular consumables resupply, while the water reuse will reduce the burden as one of the heaviest elements of any crewed mission.

Human Lander Challenge can be seen as one of the steps towards informing the concept definition for the next generation of Artemis landers that NASA needs to develop. The challenge results should not be misunderstood as the flight selection criteria. As evident from the information provided, the competition highlights the areas of life support that NASA deems to be of the highest priority currently. In particular, the agency is interested in solutions that will allow making the spacecraft, the space stations, and habitats more self-sustaining and reliable in order to meet the requirements of long-duration lunar missions with the option to extend to Mars.

Conclusion

The takeaway message concerns the fact that humans cannot explore beyond our planet without the reliable ECLSS to recycle air and water. In such a light, these two finalist concepts for the Human Lander Challenge are significant contributions that address the critical functions of ECLSS that will define the architecture of exploration-class spacecrafts, the space stations, and habitats on the Moon and Mars.

By David Whitaker – associate editor for AMI’s aerospace and drone systems desk, covering flight systems, aircraft, spaceflight, and UAVs.