Lunar trees are trees grown from approximately 500 seeds flying to the moon aboard the Apollo 14 spacecraft. The flight, during which the third landing of the people on the moon was carried out, took place on January 31 - February 9, 1971 . The seeds were not directly on the surface of the moon, but were in lunar orbit , in the personal baggage of the pilot of the command module Stuart Rousse , while his colleagues, the commander of Apollo 14, Alan Shepard and the pilot of the lunar module Edgar Mitchell , worked on the moon, near the crater Fra Mauro . After the flight, seedlings were grown from seeds, which were then planted in many US states and some foreign countries in the mid-70s of the XX century. "Moon Trees" have become a living monument to the Apollo program and personally to Stuart Rousse.
Content
Experiment Idea
The idea for the experiment came up with Edward Cliff, director of the after he learned that Stuart Rus would be on the Apollo 14 crew. Cliff had known him since the early 1950s, when the future US Air Force test pilot and NASA astronaut worked at the Forest Service as a paratrooper firefighter. Cliff asked Rousse to take seeds with him in flight, and the latter agreed. About five hundred seeds of five tree species were selected for the experiment: frankincense pine , plane tree , liquidambar , sequoia and Menzies pseudo-grasps . Control seeds were left on the ground for subsequent comparison [1] . The experts were interested in what would become of the seeds after the flight to the Moon, whether they would sprout, whether the trees would subsequently look normal [2] .
After the flight
At the end of the flight, the seeds, along with astronauts and brought samples of lunar rocks, were placed in the for quarantine . But during the vacuum disinfection procedure, an airtight container exploded in which the seeds were. All of them mixed up, some were damaged, and the US Forest Service experts even had doubts about their viability. After quarantine, the seeds were sent to the southern Forest Services nursery in Gulfport , Mississippi , and to the western nursery in Pleiserville, California , where they successfully germinated. A few years after germination, the Forest Service had from 420 to 450 seedlings ready for planting. Some of them were planted along with control samples that did not leave the Earth. After several decades, there were no noticeable differences between them. However, most seedlings were transferred to individual states (these tree species grow in the south and west of the United States, so not all states received them), universities, and NASA centers. Their landing in 1975-1976 was dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the United States and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence . Several "lunar trees" left for Brazil , Switzerland , one was presented to the Emperor of Japan [1] . The first "moon tree", a plane tree , was planted with the participation of Stuart Rusa on May 6, 1975 in Washington Square Park, in Philadelphia [2] .
Famous Fallen Moon Trees
Types of "moon trees" have different lifespan. Some live hundreds and even up to a thousand years, while others have already grown old and died from diseases or extreme weather events [3] . In 2011, a plane tree planted by Rousse in Philadelphia was killed. Now his clone is growing in the same place. The incense pine tree planted in 1976 at the White House in Washington was killed. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 broke another pine tree in New Orleans . In total, about two dozen “lunar trees” died [2] .
Searches for the "Moon Trees"
From the very beginning, no systematic account was taken of where the "moon trees" were sent and where they were planted. Their search in 1996 was undertaken by a scientist from the Goddard Space Flight Center, David Williams. The reason was the email he received from a teacher at the Girl Scout School in Cannelton, Indiana . She wrote that a tree grows in the garden of their school. Next to the plate, on which two words are written: "moon tree", and nothing more. The teacher asked what this means. But Williams himself had not heard anything about the "moon trees." He contacted NASA historians and then former US Forest Service staff. In the same year, Williams created an Internet site to search for “moon trees” [3] . By February 2016, he had found 75 trees in 25 states. [2]
Moon Tree at Cannelton, Indiana | "Lunar" plane-tree at the Goddard Space Flight Center | Landing of the second generation “moon tree” at Arlington National Cemetery February 9, 2005 |
Second Generation Moon Trees
At the end of the 20th century, “moon trees” of the second generation appeared. They were grown from seeds or cuttings of the original "moon trees". On February 9, 2005 , on the 34th anniversary of the Apollo 14 splashdown, a second-generation plane tree was planted at Arlington National Cemetery in honor of Stuart Rousse and other astronauts who had passed away. April 22 ( Earth Day ) 2009, the same plane tree was planted in the US National Arboretum in Washington . Another planted in honor of Stuart Rusa on February 3, 2011 at the John Stennis Space Center [3] .
In Culture
The story "Moon Tree" by American science fiction writer tells the story of the two people met under a pine tree, an elderly hippie and a young student. A pine tree that has visited the Moon plays a special role in the plot of the story [4] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Dr. Williams, David R. The "Moon Trees" . NASA (02/10/2016). Date of treatment March 30, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Moon mission's living monuments: Apollo 14's 'Moon Trees' 45 years later . Space News . collectSPACE (02/03/2016). Date of treatment March 30, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Zubritsky, Elizabeth. A Race Against Time to Find Apollo 14's Lost Voyagers . Features . NASA (02/09/2011). Date of treatment March 31, 2016.
- ↑ Jerry Olshen “The Moon Tree” . Laboratory fiction . Date of treatment May 1, 2016.
Links
- The "Moon Trees" . "Moon Trees." David Williams website with a list of trees he found. Date of treatment March 31, 2016.
- Interactive map showing locations of American moon trees (inaccessible link) . Interactive map of the location of the "moon trees" in the United States. Date of treatment March 31, 2016. Archived March 7, 2016.
- Second Generation "Moon Trees" . "Moon trees" of the second generation. Date of treatment April 1, 2016.