America is launching its first mission to Mars — and there’s a chumash on the spaceship. This is not a treasure hunt. It’s part of a Jewish subplot in the first season of Netflix’s space soap opera “Away.” The chumash is the prized possession of one of the main characters, black Jewish botanist Kwesi Weisberg-Annan, played by American-born actor Ato Essandoh.

According to Irene Connelly, reviewing for The Forward, the series is an astronaut drama with more emotional baggage and crises per episode than “Grey’s Anatomy.” The plot revolves around a multi-national crew of astronauts led by American commander Emma Green, played by Hilary Swank, whose major job seems to be solving the astonishing number of mechanical problems that plague the supposedly state-of-the-art space craft, Connelly says.

Kwesi’s Jewish journey began in Ghana, where he was born and orphaned, and continues when he was adopted by a British couple: Miriam, a Jewish woman, and Sisi, a Ghanaian immigrant who came to Judaism through his wife. Through Kwesi, Judaism is central to the show’s exploration of faith.

“Away” is one of several recent shows with Jewish characters and themes, including “Unorthodox,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and “Shtisel.”