St. Joseph Native A Winner In NASA Challenge

derek-mcfall-photo
derek-mcfall-photo

One of the winners of a NASA contest seeking ideas for how to recycle in space is a St. Joseph native. Derek McFall now lives in the Detroit area and works as an engineer at Troy-based SRG Global. He tells WSJM News NASA sent out a crowdsourcing challenge months ago regarding the International Space Station and other microgravity environments.

“They were asking for basically a crowdsource to generate ideas on how to process the material before it goes into the reactor,” McFall said. “So, essentially a fancy trash can that chews material up and spits it out in microgravity.”

McFall submitted what he calls the Microgravity Waste Management System, which shreds waste material and moves it into the reactor. He went to St. Joseph High School and WMU. He says he wanted to contribute to space exploration in any way possible, and it’s good to come in second in NASA’s challenge.

“It feels great. It’s good validation for the skills I’ve been working on ever since school.”

McFall came in second behind an entry from Romania, and tied with one from Egypt. He says NASA may actually use parts of his submission, but probably not the whole thing. For his efforts, he received $2,500.