Melissa Space Research Program

19/05/2026

MELiSSA Summer University – 6th Edition

Royal Palace of Portici, Naples, ITALY | 7–9 September 2026

Led by the University of Naples Federico II, the MELiSSA partners and the MELiSSA Foundation, in partnership with European Space Agency (ESA), are pleased to announce the MELiSSA Summer University (MSU), to be held at the Royal Palace of Portici. Naples, Italy.

The MSU brings together PhD students and early-career researchers working at the intersection of closed-loop life support, space systems biology, and circular (bio-)economy. Over three intensive days, participants engage in interdisciplinary exchange across topics including controlled environments and microbiology, space biology, systems engineering, modelling and control, and resource recovery.
This edition is hosted at the Royal Palace of Portici in Napels, a fitting setting for science that looks both to the Earth and beyond it.
Applications are now open.
Registration fee: €100 (includes full programme, lunches, coffee breaks, and social dinner)
Application deadline: 15 June 2026

The event is supported by ESA, MEG Science (Milan), and Evja srl (Naples).

ESA Academy scholarship
ESA Academy Office is pleased to sponsor up to 5 tertiary education students to attend MELISSA Summer University in the frame of the ESA Academy Short Course Scholarship programme.

More information and application forms can be found here: https://www.melissafoundation.org/news/consult/61

12/04/2026

La UMA -a través de UMA InnTech-, Fundación MELiSSA (vinculada a la European Space Agency)- y Málaga TechPark han sellado hoy un protocolo marco de colaboración para promover el desarrollo de iniciativas conjuntas de investigación, innovación y formación en el ámbito de las 🚀 tecnologías espaciales.

El acuerdo contempla actividades conjuntas de I+D+i, el intercambio de conocimiento y capacidades técnicas, la organización de conferencias, seminarios y talleres científico-técnicos, así como la participación coordinada en programas de financiación regionales, nacionales e internacionales o la movilidad de estudiantes y de personal investigador.

El acto ha contado con la presencia del rector Teo López, el vicerrector de Innovación Tecnológica y Proyectos Estratégicos, Javier López; el director general de la Fundación MELiSSA, Rob Suters; y el director general de Málaga TechPark, Felipe Romera.

25/03/2026

A question worth asking about NASA's Moon base
NASA announced it is redirecting funds from the Lunar Gateway toward a permanent surface base on the Moon. A significant shift, and one that raises some genuinely interesting questions about what long-term human presence there actually requires.
The headlines have focused on rockets, timelines, and geopolitics.
Keeping people alive, sustainably, far from Earth might become worth paying attention. On a permanent base, you cannot simply resupply your way through it. The logistics don't hold up over time.
It's worth noting that ESA has been working on exactly this challenge for the better part of four decades. MELiSSA, Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative, is an international effort to develop closed-loop systems to regenerate food, water and oxygen from waste. Not a concept, but a working pilot facility that has been running in Barcelona since the late 1980s.

As NASA moves toward deploying robots ahead of any crew, there may be a sensible window to test bioregenerative life support in the actual environment before people depend on it.
Permanent presence requires more than infrastructure. It requires closed loops.

04/02/2026

Regenerative life-support systems are not single technologies. They are complex, integrated systems that only function when data, models and operational experience come together.

MELiSSA focuses on maintaining and advancing this system-level technological knowledge: from component performance to integrated loop behaviour, validated over decades of research.

An essential part of our mission is to ensure that this technology does not remain confined to experimental environments. By translating validated life-support technologies and system insights, the MELiSSA Foundation contributes to terrestrial applications, including resource efficiency, circular water and nutrient management, and resilient systems design on Earth.
Our objective is to turn individual results into reusable, understandable and scalable knowledge, supporting both research and real-world application.

'At Roland-Garro, the MELiSSA water treatment unit recovers up to 80% of shower grey water and nearly 50% of the heat in that water, which is reused for pre-heating fresh shower water. https://lnkd.in/eUGErBC5'

We invite motivated students and young engineers interested in life-support technologies and their applications on Earth to get in touch about internship opportunities.

21/01/2026

Recent global developments are reminding Europe of a simple truth:
access to resources can no longer be taken for granted — whether on Earth, in polar regions, or beyond.
For decades, the MELiSSA research programme has been working on a question that is becoming increasingly relevant far beyond spaceflight:
How do we sustain human activity when resupply is limited, uncertain, or geopolitically sensitive?
By advancing Environmental Control Life Support Systems (ECLSS) — closing loops for air, water, waste, food and nutrients — MELiSSA contributes concrete know-how toward autonomy, resilience and self-sufficiency. Originally developed for long-duration space missions, these systems are directly relevant for Europe’s ability to operate independently in remote, extreme or strategically important environments.
MELiSSA does not offer slogans or political positions.
It offers engineering solutions — grounded in science, validated over decades, and increasingly relevant to Europe’s strategic future.
In space, autonomy is a necessity.
On Earth, it is becoming a choice we need to prepare for. If you are interested in an internship feel free to reach out so that we can put you in touch with partners of the MELiSSA space program.

25/12/2025

21/12/2025

Today is the December solstice at 15:03 GMT/16:03 CET.

This EUMETSAT MTG‑I1 image from 19 December 2025, 06:00 GMT, shows Earth’s day–night terminator tilted near its annual maximum of about 23.5°.

17/12/2025

MELiSSA: Europe’s Boldest Circular Life-Support Mission
While everyone talks about rockets, MELiSSA is doing the hard part:
turning waste into water, air and food — for astronauts and for a resource-stressed Earth.
And here’s the twist:
What started as a life-support system for Mars is fast becoming a blueprint for circular cities, resilient industries and closed-loop infrastructure here at home.
35 years of research.
ESA’s most advanced regenerative system.
Now recognised as strategic for Europe’s future.
MELiSSA isn’t a project.
It’s the prototype of how we’ll live — in space and on Earth.