Moon tree

Moon tree, colloquial name for any of several trees grown from seeds that were flown around the Moon during the Apollo 14 lunar mission (January 31–February 9, 1971).

Apollo 14, crewed by commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr., lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell, and command module pilot Stuart Roosa, launched on January 31, 1971. Roosa, a former U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper, had been asked by Forest Service Chief Edward P. Cliff to take approximately 500 small seeds with him on the mission to see how they would be affected by the rigours of space travel. The seeds were stored in a small valise containing Roosa’s personal effects; they remained in his possession on the command module until splash down on February 9, 1971. Despite their name, the seeds were not brought to the lunar surface but rather orbited the Moon 34 times while Roosa waited for the return of Shepard and Mitchell.

Seeds from five tree species made the voyage: loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua), coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). All survived the journey, but there was some concern when the seed packets burst in a vacuum chamber during the mandated post-mission decontamination, the last for an Apollo mission. The seeds were collected and sorted by the U.S. Forest Service, and almost all successfully germinated, producing approximately 450 seedlings in total. Most of the seedlings grown during the first round of plantings, however, died due to inadequate facilities; the remaining seeds were subsequently sent to research stations that were better equipped for plant propagation. Ultimately, researchers found no detectable differences between the Moon trees and those grown from the experiment’s control seeds left on Earth.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was responsible for distributing the Moon tree seedlings, and many were given away during the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976. Moon trees were planted at the White House; in Washington Square Park in Philadelphia; at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania; in the International Forest of Friendship in Atchison, Kansas; at Arlington National Cemetery; and at various universities and NASA centres. Internationally, Moon trees were planted in Switzerland and Brazil and were gifted to Emperor Hirohito of Japan. Pres. Gerald Ford sent a telegram to many of the recipients of Bicentennial Moon trees. It read:

…This tree which was carried by Astronauts Stuart Roosa, Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell on their mission to the moon, is a living symbol of our spectacular human and scientific achievements. It is a fitting tribute to our national space program which has brought out the best of American patriotism, dedication and determination to succeed.

Planted in this community in our bicentennial year. May this young tree renew our deep-rooted faith in the ideals of our Founding Fathers and may it inspire us to strive for the kind of growth that benefits our own citizens and all mankind.

Unfortunately, many Moon trees were planted without identifying signage, and the locations of most of the trees have been lost. In 1996, following an inquiry from a third-grade teacher in Cannelton, Indiana, NASA scientist Dave Williams created a database of known Moon trees around the world. Often relying on archival newspaper clippings from the 1970s, NASA has located about 110 of the original Moon trees, of which nearly 30 have died in the decades following their planting.

In 2011 Stuart Roosa’s daughter Rosemary founded the Moon Tree Foundation to honour her father’s legacy and to distribute second-generation Moon trees grown from seeds or cuttings of the original plants. Twelve such trees were planted at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after the original Moon tree there was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017.

In 2022 Artemis I commemorated the Apollo 14 mission by taking approximately 1,000 tree seeds beyond the Moon and back for a total flight distance of 2.3 million km (1.4 million miles). Instead of coast redwood seeds, the Artemis I seeds included giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) seeds, which are more common in parks and arboretums. Seedlings germinated from the Artemis I seeds will be donated to public and educational institutions across the United States.