2016Demonstrated in orbit
A flower above Earth.
Zinnias bloomed on the International Space Station. This happened in a protected growing system in Earth orbit.
03 · A garden beyond Earth
This flower
grew in space.
There is a bouquet on the table in Moon Party. And there is this: a real zinnia, blooming above the world it came from.
Real photograph · International Space Station
NASA · Photograph shared by astronaut Scott Kelly. See NASA’s original
A small, extraordinary beginning
It needed someone to care for it.
Growing the zinnias in the space station’s Veggie system was not effortless. When the plants struggled, Scott Kelly worked with the team on Earth and took a more direct role in deciding how to care for them. By January 2016, flowers were opening.
That experiment helped researchers learn about growing flowering plants in microgravity. It also gives the painted bouquet an unexpected connection to something real: far from Earth, someone was tending a flower.
Read the story from NASA2022Demonstrated on Earth
Roots in real Moon material.
University of Florida researchers grew small Arabidopsis plants in Apollo lunar soil, in a laboratory on Earth. They added water and nutrients. The plants grew, but showed stress.
One dayA future possibility
A garden on the Moon?
A protected lunar garden could build on what these experiments teach us. Growing reliably in lunar conditions remains a challenge. A vase of flowers on a lunar table is still something to imagine.
Return to the painting
A little bouquet.
A bigger possibility.
Look at the flowers again. With that real zinnia in mind, does anything in the painting feel different?
Look again at Moon PartySources & photograph
- NASA · Zinnia at the Cupola window, January 17, 2016
- NASA · The Veggie zinnia experiment
- NASA · Plants grown in lunar soil, May 2022
These were different experiments: flowers in Earth orbit, and plants in lunar material in an Earth laboratory. Neither demonstrates an outdoor garden on the Moon.
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