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NASA recently selected three winning ideas for compressing waste into space with minimal complications.
Because astronauts have little space in their living space – and because no one likes the danger of projected space debris – waste treatment is a constant problem for astronauts.
That's why NASA, in partnership with the NineSigma company, has created a "Recycle in Space" challenge to encourage the public to think about ways to process and introduce waste in a high temperature reactor. This will enable NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (which develops prototype systems and validates the operational concepts for human exploration), as well as the agency's space technology programs, to develop methods to recycle waste and convert waste into useful gas.
Three winners were selected from a NASA Tournament Lab crowdsourcing challenge, according to a statement from NASA.
The laureates are:
- Aurelian Zapciu, Romania – $ 10,000 for first place, waste pre-treatment unit. This system uses space-saving functions as well as cam-operated ejectors (they use a rotating or sliding part in a mechanical system) to move the waste into a system. Then another mechanism brings the waste into a reactor.
- Derek McFall, USA – $ 2,500 for second place, Microgravity Waste Management System. This uses a hopper to treat solid waste, as well as controlled airflow for liquid and gaseous waste.
- Ayman Ragab Ahmed Hamdallah, Egypt – $ 2,500 for second place, Trash-Gun (T-Gun). This uses jets of air to compress the waste before moving it into the system, which solves the problem of microgravity operations, where everything floats and makes compression difficult.
The bids had to take into account several factors in addition to the lack of gravity, including the amount of space available, the sound level created, the amount of energy used as well as the safety of the crew , according to NASA's statement. The proposed systems could not use many consumables either. (The consumables are items such as oxygen, water and energy.)
"The challenge has produced innovative ideas that we have not yet considered," said competition judge Paul Hintze. Hintze is also a chemist in the Kennedy Space Center's exploration, research and technology programs. "I look forward to continuing to review these ideas and hope that they will contribute to our manned spaceflight missions."
Learn more about NASA's tournament lab (including how to participate in lab challenges) right here; Discover more opportunities and challenges for citizen science at NASA right here.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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