What Trees Have Been to the Moon and Back?

There are trees all over the U.S. (and the world) grown from seeds that orbited the Moon. Learn about NASA's moon trees in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/nasa-moon-trees.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey,
brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, it's entirely possible that a
UFO has been somewhere near your home for decades. Yes,
we mean a UFO from outer space, just not the
flying saucer kind. The UFO we're talking about might be

(00:22):
an unidentified fur object. That's because a fur is one
of several varieties of tree seeds that literally took a
trip around the Moon in the nineteen seventies and made
its way back to be planted on Earth. So let's
talk about just how that happened. This is the story
of the moon trees in Stuart Rusa, a former U

(00:45):
S Forest Service smoke jumper who would parachute into forest
fires to help put them out, joined NASA astronauts Alan
Shepherd and Edgar Mitchell on the Apollo fourteen mission to
the Moon. Russa took with him five different varieties of
tree seeds on both ward, including nearly five hundred seeds
of douglas fir, lob lolly pine, sycamore, sweet gum, and redwood.

(01:07):
He held the seeds in metal containers inside a canvas
pouch as part of a joint NASA US Forestry Service
Project RUSA, and the seeds orbited the Moon in the
Kittie Hawk command module as Shepherd and Mitchell walked on
the Moon's surface below. While the seeds never left the
capsule or touched the Moon, they became known as Moon
trees when they returned to Earth and were germinated and

(01:30):
planted around the United States in honor of the country's
by centennial celebration in nineteen six. It was partially a
publicity stunt, but the point of the seed project was
to determine whether there might be a difference in characteristics
between these space seeds and a batch of control seeds
left on Earth almost immediately upon return. The experiment was

(01:52):
in jeopardy because the seed bag was exposed to a
vacuum and burst during the decontamination process. The seeds have
a old to be fairly hardy, but a total vacuum
isn't something that earthly trees ever planned for. Nobody knew
if the seeds would still be viable, and besides, the
seeds from all five species had scattered and intermingled, but

(02:14):
forced Service geneticist Stan Krugman, who was in charge of
the project separated them by hand and sent them to
forced service labs to be germinated, and almost all of
them did. After a failed attempt at growing several trees
in Houston, the remaining seeds were sent to the Southern
Forest Service Station in Gulfport, Mississippi, and to the Western

(02:34):
Station in Placerville, California. Hundreds grew into seedlings. Some of
the seedlings were planted along with the control seeds left
on earth. Now, nearly fifty years after the Apollo fourteen mission,
there's no discernible difference between the known plantings and their offspring. Unfortunately,
when the seedlings were given away, no one kept a

(02:56):
list of adopters or locations, and some were sent to
state forestry organizations. Others were sent to the White House,
Independent Square in Philadelphia and even the Emperor of Japan.
Lots of people requested them. Senators wanted saplings to plant
when they dedicated buildings. The then mayor of New Orleans,
Maurice Edwin Landrew, went by the nickname Moon, and he

(03:18):
managed to get a few. Two. A girl Scout troop
in Indiana received one. Many were planted with a plaque
describing the journey that they had undertaken, but even the
known list of moon trees that NASA keeps is a
best guess. Nonetheless, if you'd like to see whether any
of these trees still stand somewhere near you, just google

(03:38):
Moon trees known list. The NASA Space Science Data Coordinated
Archive keeps up a page with locations of all the
known trees, with living ones listed from California to Florida
and north as far as Massachusetts and Washington State. Today's
episode is based on the article Awesome Moon trees still

(04:01):
stand as Testament to Apollo fourt teen on houstuffworks dot com,
written by Sherry's Cunningham. Brain Stuff is production of by
Heart Radio and partnership with houstuff works dot com, and
it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio,
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