Suggested Searches

3 min read

NASA Challenge Winners Could Help Turn Space Trash to Gas

trash-to-gas logo

As NASA prepares to send humans to the Moon under Artemis and prepare for future exploration of Mars, astronauts will need technologies to deal with trash on long-duration space missions. NASA, in collaboration with HeroX, asked the public for ideas to address this problem in the Trash-to-Gas Ash Management Challenge.

The challenge focused on developing concepts for an effective method of removing the ash from a full-scale Trash-to-Gas reactor in microgravity for later use or disposal.

The crowdsourcing challenge received submissions from around the world. A panel of NASA judges evaluated the solutions and selected first-, second-, and third-place winners.

The award recipients are:

  • Aurelian Zapciu, Romania – $15,000 for first place
  • Crointel, Taiwan – $10,000 for second place
  • The Hyper Group, Netherlands – $5,000 for third place

“It’s great to have the public be part of NASA’s amazing endeavors,” said Ray Pitts, research scientist with the agency’s Exploration Research and Technology directorate. “Each of the winners brought a new perspective for the challenge at hand, and we’re excited about these responses and their potential application to addressing this exploration concern as we plan to send astronauts to the Moon and Mars.”

Zapciu’s submission proposed incorporating ultrasonic waves to push ash to an auger screw – a spiral-shaped tool that moves ash along as it rotates. This first-place idea also offers reactor cleaning and sensing capabilities. Crointel suggested an ultrasound-based integrated solution to highly automate ash removal from the Orbital Syngas Commodity Augmentation Reactor (OSCAR) system, a test rig designed to make use of trash and human waste generated during long-duration spaceflight. The Hyper Group suggested using the Brachistochronic Impeller and Forced Air Loop Filter (BI-FALF), an attachment system that would work with OSCAR to enable it to store and clean the ashes inside the reactor.

These suggested processes could help NASA find solutions to help protect crew health, automate, or minimize crew time spent on this task, and seamlessly remove the ash to benefit the next phase of the Trash-to-Gas technology development.

The NASA Tournament Lab, which managed the challenge, engages innovators all over the world to solve real-world problems that NASA faces. The lab is part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate. Its public competitions and crowdsourcing help advance NASA research and development and other mission needs.

Learn more about opportunities to participate in your space program via NASA prizes and challenges at: https://www.nasa.gov/solve.