The NASA Trash-to-Gas Ash Management Challenge now has a winner. This new competition aims to gather ideas from participants that can efficiently help reduce the ash from a full-scale trash-to-gas reactor. 

(Photo : Photo grab from NASA on Unsplash )
NASA Trash-To-Gas Ash Challenge Winner Has Been Announced! First-Place Idea Involves Use of Ultrasonic Waves

For those unfamiliar with this technology, the trash-to-gas reactor is among the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's innovations to reduce waste in outer space. 

It works by gasifying space junk and making trash into a product that can be used as raw material for other spacecraft processes. 

NASA's trash-to-gas reactor relies on thermal degradation processes to make waste gasifying possible. 

NASA Trash-To-Gas Ash Challenge's Winners

According to NASA Gov's official announcement post, three groups won the latest competition. NASA explained that the new challenge focuses on creating techs that can lessen the ash in their trash-to-gas reactor. 

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"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," said the international space union. 

Now, here are the exact winners and their ideas: 

Aurelian Zapciu (First place: $15,000) 

• Focused on using ultrasonic waves to push ash from the trash-to-gas reactor to the auger screw. Aside from this, the first-place winner also provided some ideas on cleaning and sensing abilities. 

Crointel (Second Place: $10,000) 

• Suggested using an ultrasound-based integrated solution to remove ash in a highly automated method. Crointel said that it can be done using the Orbital Syngas Commodity Augmentation Reactor (OSCAR) system. 

The Hyper Group (Third Place: $5,000) 

• Focused on using BI-FALF (Brachistochronic Impeller and Forced Air Loop Filter), a tech works with OSCAR to clean ashes within the trash-to-gas reactor.  

NASA's Anti-Space Trash Innovations

The trash-to-gas reactor is just one of the international space agency's innovations to reduce orbiting space junk. Aside from this, Universe Today provided two more methods that NASA relies on to lessen space junk outside Earth.

The first one is the dry-stabilize-compact method. This technique focuses on removing the water from space trash, allowing the space agency to reduce the mass of the space junk. 

It is comparable to the tile-trash method used by the cartoon robot "Wall-E." 
The other anti-space trash method used by NASA is the "Jettison the trash via an airlock," which removes all the space junk's mass and volume. However, the trash will be completely useless since any of the resources it contains will be discarded. 

Previously, NASA's contact with CAPSTONE was successfully re-established. 

On the other hand, the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission revealed new details about the asteroid called Bennu. 

For more news updates about NASA and its upcoming public competitions, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. 

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Written by: Griffin Davis