ZHENGYANG MACHINERY EQUIPMENT Co.,Ltd.

NASA Names Recycling in Space Challenge Winners

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in partnership with NineSigma, has announced the award recipients of its Recycling in Space challenge. According to NASA, the purpose of the challenge aims to help NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems and space programs develop waste-to-energy technology that can recycle plastic waste into useful gases.

The award recipients are:

         Aurelian Zapciu of Romania: $10,000 for first place, Waste Pre-Processing Unit

         Derek McFall of the U.S.: $2,500 for second place, Microgravity Waste Management System

         Ayman Ragab Ahmed Hamdallah of Egypt: $2,500 for second place, Trash-Gun (T-Gun)

Figuring out how to repurpose food packaging, plastic, paper, fabric and other types of waste without gravity to work with is difficult. That’s why NASA, in partnership with NineSigma, created the Recycling in Space Challenge.

The purpose of the challenge is to engage the public to develop methods of processing and feeding trash into a high-temperature reactor. This will help NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems and space technology programs develop trash-to-gas technology that can recycle waste into useful gases.

The NASA Tournament Lab (NTL) crowdsourcing challenge received submissions from participants around the world. A panel of judges evaluated the solutions and selected one first place and two second place winners.