Mystery of the Trees that Came from Moon
Gainesville, Florida (United States):
They flew to the moon, circled it 34 times and returned to terra firma. Many of them are still alive more than three decades later and can be found in many state capitals, in foreign countries and even on the University of Florida campus.
They are called moon trees, grown from seeds taken to the moon on Apollo 14 in 1971, by Stuart Roosa, who had been a smoke jumper for the U.S. Forest Service before earning his astronaut wings.
Roosa, the pilot of the Kitty Hawk command module, carried about 500 seeds in his Personal Preference Kit, including sycamores, pines, redwoods, Douglas fir and sweetgum. He never landed on the surface of the moon, instead circling overhead as astronauts Alan Shepard and Ed Mitchell worked and frolicked on the lunar surface.
The scientific reason for taking the seeds was to see whether exposure to space and possible radiation would affect the seeds. Researchers said there was no difference between the moon seeds and a control group kept on Earth.
Upon its return to Earth, the seed canister burst open during vacuum decontamination procedures at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Scientists were concerned that exposing the seeds to a vacuum would prevent them from germinating, said David R. Williams, a planetary scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who has attempted to locate the moon trees.
But the seeds were sent to Forest Service stations in Gulfport, Miss., and Placerville, Calif., and almost all of them germinated.
Hundreds of seedlings were distributed when the United States celebrated its bicentennial in 1976. They went to schools, courthouses, colleges, state capitals, foreign governments, NASA facilities and even the White House.
Williams could not find any official record listing where moon trees were planted, but he was able to locate 60 of them after posting a message on a NASA Web site seeking information. Some people sent news accounts, pictures of the trees and photos of plaques that identified where they were planted.
Three of the trees were secretly planted on the University of Florida campus. Campus officials feared the trees would be picked bare by students or stolen. One is a towering sycamore that still grows on campus, while two loblolly pines were killed by a weed whacker.
"Sycamores are the hardiest. They can grow in the largest variety of conditions," Williams said.
Alan Long, an associate professor at the School of Forestry, said the sycamore grown from the space seed is the same as any other sycamore. Long said he uses the tree in a plant identification class.
He said the tree is now 75 feet tall and 26 inches in diameter - 15 feet taller and 2 more inches in diameter since it was measured two years ago. But Long is concerned that emissions from buses from a nearby student bus stop could harm the tree, though so far he hasn't seen any damage.
"The tree is threatened by diesel fumes, which is more trying than anything it experienced on a trip to the moon," Long said.
Four other trees are located in Florida, including one at the Kennedy Space Center, two in Tallahassee and one in Perry.
For those who missed out on the original moon seeds, it's possible to get a tree grown from seeds from the original trees.
One of those second generation trees was planted on Feb. 9 in Arlington National Cemetery near the grave of Stuart Roosa, who died in 1994. The date was the 34th anniversary of the Apollo 14 splashdown.
A Jacksonville firm, Historic American Trees, is selling second generation moon sycamores for $32.
Oct 3, 2005
Associated press St. Petersburg Times, FL
Gainesville, Florida (United States):They flew to the moon, circled it 34 times and returned to terra firma. Many of them are still alive more than three decades later and can be found in many state capitals, in foreign countries and even on the University of Florida campus.
They are called moon trees, grown from seeds taken to the moon on Apollo 14 in 1971, by Stuart Roosa, who had been a smoke jumper for the U.S. Forest Service before earning his astronaut wings.
Roosa, the pilot of the Kitty Hawk command module, carried about 500 seeds in his Personal Preference Kit, including sycamores, pines, redwoods, Douglas fir and sweetgum. He never landed on the surface of the moon, instead circling overhead as astronauts Alan Shepard and Ed Mitchell worked and frolicked on the lunar surface.
The scientific reason for taking the seeds was to see whether exposure to space and possible radiation would affect the seeds. Researchers said there was no difference between the moon seeds and a control group kept on Earth.
Upon its return to Earth, the seed canister burst open during vacuum decontamination procedures at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Scientists were concerned that exposing the seeds to a vacuum would prevent them from germinating, said David R. Williams, a planetary scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who has attempted to locate the moon trees.
But the seeds were sent to Forest Service stations in Gulfport, Miss., and Placerville, Calif., and almost all of them germinated.
Hundreds of seedlings were distributed when the United States celebrated its bicentennial in 1976. They went to schools, courthouses, colleges, state capitals, foreign governments, NASA facilities and even the White House.
Williams could not find any official record listing where moon trees were planted, but he was able to locate 60 of them after posting a message on a NASA Web site seeking information. Some people sent news accounts, pictures of the trees and photos of plaques that identified where they were planted.
Three of the trees were secretly planted on the University of Florida campus. Campus officials feared the trees would be picked bare by students or stolen. One is a towering sycamore that still grows on campus, while two loblolly pines were killed by a weed whacker.
"Sycamores are the hardiest. They can grow in the largest variety of conditions," Williams said.
Alan Long, an associate professor at the School of Forestry, said the sycamore grown from the space seed is the same as any other sycamore. Long said he uses the tree in a plant identification class.
He said the tree is now 75 feet tall and 26 inches in diameter - 15 feet taller and 2 more inches in diameter since it was measured two years ago. But Long is concerned that emissions from buses from a nearby student bus stop could harm the tree, though so far he hasn't seen any damage.
"The tree is threatened by diesel fumes, which is more trying than anything it experienced on a trip to the moon," Long said.
Four other trees are located in Florida, including one at the Kennedy Space Center, two in Tallahassee and one in Perry.
For those who missed out on the original moon seeds, it's possible to get a tree grown from seeds from the original trees.
One of those second generation trees was planted on Feb. 9 in Arlington National Cemetery near the grave of Stuart Roosa, who died in 1994. The date was the 34th anniversary of the Apollo 14 splashdown.
A Jacksonville firm, Historic American Trees, is selling second generation moon sycamores for $32.
Oct 3, 2005
Associated press St. Petersburg Times, FL
