Nolux

An artificial photosynthetic system that is capable of producing plant- and fungal-based foods independent of biological photosynthesis.

Created: 2022-10-07

Updated: 2024-10-02

Company - Nolux

Founded
Country: 2021; USA

Funding: $0.025M+

Product/Service

Classification: In-Space Manufacturing

Category: In-Space Manufacturing

Fields: Food for Space

Status: Development

First launch: Not announced

Two runners-up each earned $250,000 for their food systems’ successes: Nolux of Riverside, California, and SATED of Boulder, Colorado. Nolux, a university team led by Robert Jinkerson, constructed an artificial photosynthetic system that can create plant and fungal-based foods without the operation of biological photosynthesis. Meet the Phase 3 Challengers.

AUC Riverside research team has won $250,000 as a runner-up in NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge, an international competition challenging participants to develop systems to produce food on the International Space Station. One of about 200 teams that entered the competition, the UCR team, dubbed Nolux (shorthand for “no light”), designed a system that can grow mushrooms in 2 cubic meters of dark space — about the size of a small closet — and uses no more than 1,500 watts of electricity. The mushrooms are fed acetate as a source of carbon for growth. The system can produce enough mushrooms for 4,000 calories of food energy per day. Jinkerson also is developing a tomato variety that can be grown in space in a collaboration with Martha Orozco, director of UCR’s Plant Transformation Research Center. This tomato is slated to be grown in the International Space Station orbiting above Earth.

One of the 11 finalists in Phase 2 of the Deep Space Food Challenge. The U.S. teams each receive $20,000.

One of the 8 winning teams in the second phase of Deep Space Food Challenge. The U.S. teams will each receive $150,000 in prizes from NASA and advance to compete for up to $1.5 million in total prizes from NASA in Phase 3. Nolux of Riverside, California, created a solution that mimics the photosynthesis that happens in nature to produce plant- and mushroom-based ingredients.

Bioculture / Hybrid. An artificial photosynthetic system that is capable of producing plant- and fungal-based foods independent of biological photosynthesis.

Status Comment / Notes

An university team. Possibly out-of-scope for this database.

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