NASA has selected the following winners to share in the $30,000 of the NASA Waste Jettison Mechanism Challenge. Additionally, two more winners from the pool of 5 finalists have each been awarded $1,000 and named as a tie for 4th place, making the final prize purse $32,000. The winners are:
1st Place - $15,000
Tossed In Space: Scissor-Spring-Shot by Jason McCallister
2nd Place - $10,000
Simple solutions top complexity for simple tasks by Craig Payne
3rd Place - $5,000
(S-VEL Series) Secure Variable Energy Launcher by team The Hyper Group, consisting of Miko de Meijer, Ross Palatan and Bens Abraham.
4th Place (tied) - $1,000
CO2 Trash Launcher (CO2TL) "Cotl" by Jeff Morse
4th Place (tied) - $1,000
SLEM (Spring Loaded Ejection Mechanism) by team Aggie Aeros, consisting of Krishnan Vellore, Marcus Facundo, Abby Rajagopal, Harsheet Kumm, Jaeson Rivera, Nicholas DeVault, Om Waghela, Carol Geng, Aadarsh Sudanagunta, Tsung Hsiang Lin (Sean), Akshay Kokkula, Garrett Stevenson, Aniket Pal, and Victoria Chen
We would also like to recognize the following honorable mentions. While these teams will not be receiving a monetary prize, we would like to commend them for their excellent submissions:
- General Purpose Linear Catapult (GPLC) by Joshua Mashewske
- Things Thrower by Dmitrii Garin
- Sling Sled by Robert Schlecht
For those who competitors were named as a challenge winner or honorable mention, please keep an eye on your email and HeroX inboxes as a HeroX representative will be reaching out to coordinate the necessary next steps.
For all of those who participated, thank you for your time and inspiration. You have helped our team to progress our understanding of what is possible and we hope you bring your talent to more problems yet to come.
In the meantime, stick around over the next few days for some additional news related to the challenge that may just intrigue you
Let us all say “Congratulations” once again to our winners!
