Moon Trees are living testaments to mankind’s first trips to the Moon: Where are they now?
Updated Feb 08, 2021;
Posted Feb 08, 2021
A sycamore Moon Tree planted at Mississippi State University in 1975 is the parent tree to many second-generation trees called Half-Moon Trees.
Credits: NASA/Will Bryan
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In February 1971, onboard the Apollo 14 Command and Service Module Kitty Hawk, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa was conducting “observations, experiments, and scientific investigations” in lunar orbit, while his fellow crew members, Commander Alan Shepard and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell explored the Fra Mauro formation on the Moon’s surface.
A statement by NASA History, on Feb. 4, recounts that 50 years ago onboard Kitty Hawk, in Roosa’s personal travel kit, was “a canister of approximately 400-500 loblolly pine, sweet gum, redwood, Douglas fir, and sycamore tree seeds.”
Commander Shepard visited the lunar surface during the Apollo 14 mission
Nearing the end of his moon walk, he hit two golf balls using a makeshift club
One went into a crater but the ultimate location of the other was unclear
Image expert Andy Saunders digitally enhanced images taken on the mission
The second ball, he revealed, travelled a mere 40 yards before coming to rest