Moon Trees
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Grady’s Space Chronicles
Moon Trees
Apollo 14 Moon mission with Astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell was one to expose some Earth seeds to vacuum space for an experiment.
I met Al Shepard at The Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama, when he was assigned to the Mercury-Redstone First Man In Space Project in 1967; an Up and Down 60 miles into space shot testing our spacecraft, rocket and recovery systems. I showed Al his rocket “ride” for that flight. Al had recovered from an ailment and was assigned a new mission this time to the Moon on broad the Apollo 14. His mission this time was called “Moon Trees.”
The mission on this day in 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard, Jr., Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell returned to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 21:05 UT (4:05 p.m. EST). They were recovered by the USS New Orleans, and returned to the U.S. by way of American Samoa. But the three men weren’t the only living creatures to come back from the Moon on Feb. 9, 1971… in fact, human astronauts were in the minority that day. Al, Stu and Ed shared their lunar voyage with nearly 500 trees.
Seeds in Space aim was to make science fun while demonstrating the influence of gravity on germination and growth of plants. Kits were distributed one month before launch to schools in the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, and the Dutch Antilles. Students compared growth of seeds on Earth with those grown onboard the space station, which they observed through a live video downlink from orbit. In space, plants in the dark grew in all directions, while those in the light all grew toward the light. Participants concluded that light or gravity help plants know in which direction to grow, and the absence of both appears to confuse the plants.
The main goal of this student experiment is to involve as many students as possible in an effort to show that science is fun through a plant growth experiment called Seeds in Space. The educational / scientific objectives of the experiment are: To demonstrate the influence of gravity on the germination and growth of plants to young people (10 to 15 year olds) and others. By engaging in the comparable on-ground experiment, students will experience that science is fun and that the weightless environment of space opens new possibilities. The experiment kit will be distributed one month before launch to schools or other distribution channels.
The main purpose of this education/ demonstration experiment is to clearly show that plants respond to gravity by a directed growth (experiments on ground) and that they will show a non-preferential or disoriented growth direction when grown in the dark in weightlessness. The in-flight part of the experiment will consist of loading rockets with simple plant growth chambers in which Rucola seeds germinate either with or without light. Crew will setup the growth chamber, initiating seed germination by watering the seeds on the supporting filter paper using a standard 30-ml needleless syringe with luer lock stopcock. Crew will monitor the growth once a day. Since there is no in-flight experience with the proposed plants (species Rucola, rocket lettuce), we require three sets of cultures to be initiated on three consecutive days in flight. The duration for one plant culture is expected to be 3-4 days. Depending on the date and time for the live in flight the call was made.
Astronaut Stuart Roosa carried a metal canister about the size of a soda can in his personal kit filled with more than 500 seeds from loblolly pine, redwood, sweet gum, sycamore and Douglas fir trees. He did it in part to honor the U.S. Forest Service, where he had served as a smoke jumper, the first responders to forest fires.
Roosa took 5 species of tree seeds with him: the Loblolly Pine, Sycamore, Sweetgum, Redwood, and Douglas Fir. He wanted to figure out how to "bridge the gap between space science and environmental science." The seeds circled the moon 34 times. Scientists were curious as to whether the seeds would germinate and the resultant trees would look normal.
The seeds were classified and sorted, and control seeds were kept on earth for later comparison. Unfortunately, upon return to earth, the seed cannisters burst open during the decontamination process and they were exposed to the vacuum.
Everyone was convinced that the experiment was ruined and that the seeds wouldn't germinate. However most of the seeds did. In 1976 the maturing trees left the laboratory conditions and were distributed to many parks and universities, in honor of the U.S. bicentennial. Now there are hundreds of these trees planted across the United States.
After Apollo 14 got back, Stan Krugman of the Forest Service oversaw planting of the moon seeds and an equivalent number of seeds that hadn't been up in orbit to compare their growth vs. the seedlings that came from space. Some 450 of the Apollo seeds sprouted right up.
By 1975, they had grown large enough that they could be transplanted. For the next few years, NASA and the Forest Service shipped the saplings out to be planted in parks and on the grounds of state capitols, schools and government buildings, especially in honor of the nation's bicentennial in 1976. More than 70 locations in the U.S. and abroad received the seeds. Some 22 trees have aged and have died.
Grady 23:10, 7 July 2014 (BST)
