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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhere are the Moon Trees?
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/history/moon-trees-stand-as-living-testaments-to-first-voyages-to-moon.html
Flying passively in Roosas personal travel kit on Kitty Hawk 50 years ago was a canister of approximately 400-500 loblolly pine, sweet gum, redwood, Douglas fir, and sycamore tree seeds. Upon return, the seeds were germinated and grew into Moon Trees found around the U.S. and world.
A joint effort between NASA and the U.S. Forest Service, the seeds were flown as an experiment to determine the effects of deep space on seeds and also to help raise awareness about the Forest Service and the wildland forest firefighters called smokejumpers. Roosa served as a smokejumper in the 1950s jumping out of airplanes to combat the blazes before becoming a military aviator and astronaut.
Moon Tree saplings were gifted to schools, universities, parks, and government offices, many as part of the U.S. bicentennial celebrations in 1976. Locations were chosen, in part, to ensure proper climate conditions for the respective tree species.
Some trees were planted beside their Earth-grown counterparts. After decades of growth, no discernable differences can be found between the trees that grew from seeds that traveled to the Moon and those that never left Earth.
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Where are the Moon Trees? (Original Post)
underpants
Feb 2021
OP
SergeStorms
(19,131 posts)1. I think they took root...
squarely between the ears of a certain former president, who shall remain unnamed.
csziggy
(34,131 posts)2. Cool - I'd never heard of the Moon Trees before!
Two are here in Tallahassee. You can look up where they are in this chart:
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/moon_tree.html
They even have a list of those no longer alive. One was a loblolly pine on the grounds of the White House. I wonder when it died - or who killed it?
underpants
(182,574 posts)5. I hadn't either
Turns out going to space made no difference but its still cool that they tried.
Donkees
(31,321 posts)6. It seems Pence planted a 'Half Moon' Tree at the VP residence
The Vice President Plants a Moon Tree
Sidonie Gillette November 13th, 2019
On November 8, Vice President Mike Pence joined space experts and enthusiasts to plant a Moon Tree at his official residence in Washington, D.C.
Roosa died in 1994, but his daughter, Rosemary Roosa, continues his legacy. Now executive director of the Moon Tree Foundation, she was among the guests at the Vice Presidents residence.
The group helped plant a Sycamore sapling grown from seeds from one of the original Moon Trees. These second-generation trees are also called Half-Moon Trees.
https://kpcnotebook.scholastic.com/post/vice-president-plants-moon-tree
Solly Mack
(90,758 posts)3. K&R
There's one in Athens.
crickets
(25,949 posts)7. What a nifty thing!