MOON TREES on Planet Earth

Frank and I are International Space Station (ISS) followers. We get tweets from ISS with time and dates (http://twitter.com/space_station) the Station is visible in the Hanapepe sky and like children are taken in by the wonder of our sighting. It’s amazing to think that so many miles above Planet Earth Astronauts are living and working just like us…but different because they are in Space and we are on Earth!

In 1971 Astronaut Stewart A. Roosa (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/text/roosa_pr.txt) was the command module pilot on the Apollo 14 Lunar Mission. Before joining NASA Roosa was a smoke jumper for the United States Forest Service (USFS). This connection led to the USFS chief to ask Roosa to bring USFS tree seeds into space. The folks at USFS had an idea to see if seeds that made the journey into Space would grow back on Earth. NASA was not yet conducting scientific experiments in Space that were unrelated to the Apollo Missions so Roosa used his personal travel kit to bring some 500 USFS tree seeds along for the trip to the Moon. Until Apollo 14 astronaut’s travel kits were filled with coins and trinket items like golf balls so this little experiment not only brought us Moon Trees but opened the hatch for NASA to explore nontraditional scientific experiments in the theater of space.

Roosa, paying tribute to his USFS Ohana, packed his personal kit with a cylinder of Redwood, Pine, Fir and Sycamore tree seeds. The seeds made the 21 day journey to the Moon and back. The biggest challenge was back on Earth when during NASA decontamination the seed capsule burst! The seeds scattered all over the de-com chamber, got all mixed up and were thought to be rendered useless for germination. Dis-heartened NASA workers swept up the seeds and sent to them off to USFS with low expectations for germination. It was to everyone’s surprise and delight that the little experiment that almost went very wrong produced healthy seedlings that would be known as Moon Trees!

The “Moon Trees” are planted across the United States and around the world. See List Here: (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/moon_tree.html)

There was so much interest in Moon Trees that USFS took cutting and seeds from the original trees to propagate second generation “Half Moon Trees” and they are thriving as well! See List Here: (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/moon_trees/second_gen_moon_tree.html)

This little event created a wonderful legacy that speaks to the amazing pioneering spirit and natural curiosity of us as Americans represented by Astronaut Roosa, the USFS and NASA. Interested to own a Moon Tree? Link here: (http://www.historictrees.org/produ_ht/moonsycm_cc.htm)