Astrobotany Image: Jim Voss With Onions
13.07.2024 - 14:33
/ theunconventionalgardener.com
/ Emma Doughty
I find this photograph intriguing. It shows NASA astronaut James (Jim) Voss in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station, holding a plastic bag with two large onions. Both onions have long, green stalks which poke out of the bag. It was taken in 2001, during Expedition 2, which took place from 10 Mar 2001 – 20 Aug 2001 with three crew members: Voss, NASA astronaut Susan Helms and Russian cosmonaut Yury Usachev.
Expedition 2 involved some official astrobotany, using Advanced Astroculture (Advasc), the first plant growth facility installed in the ISS. But the onions are something else – an unofficial or ‘spontaneous’ gardening activity.
There’s very little evidence of it beyond this photograph, but Russian cosmonauts were quite fond of unofficial gardening activities on previous space stations. Yury Usachev had been in Mir, so perhaps the onion garden was his idea.
However, seeing Jim with his onions (and Don Pettit with his underpants garden during Expedition 6) inspired Orbitec to develop new systems for successful gardening in space – resulting in the hugely successful Veggie growing system.
Image credits: NASA
Haeuplik-Meusburger, Sandra, et al. “Greenhouses and their humanizing synergies.” Acta astronautica 96 (2014): 138-150. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/19744245.pdf
NASA Spinoff, “NASA’s Growing Commitment: The Space Garden”, 2005. https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2005/ch_4.html
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