The seeds – lobster, pine, sweet gum, redwood and Douglas fir – traveled with Stuart Roosa, one of the three NASA astronauts on the mission. and a former U.S. Forest Service firefighter, sealed in small plastic bags stored in a metal can in his personal luggage. They were part of an experiment to see how seeds respond to the spatial environment.
Steve Miller, vice president of the Royal Astronomical Society and a professor at University College London, believes that some of these seeds or seedlings end up in the United Kingdom. He wants to know what happened to them, just like the UK Space Agency.
His search began after he asked a popular BBC radio program “Gardener’s Question Time” about a suitable horticultural way to celebrate the Royal Astronomical Society’s two-hundred-year existence, which was celebrated in 2020.
Panelist and gardener Christine Walkden suggested he look at the trees that grew from the moon seeds she said were planted in the UK, and that he would get one of them. However, no evidence has been found to exist in the United Kingdom.
Two potential recipients, Kew Gardens in London and the arboretum at Jodrell Bank, the UK’s main space observatory, have no records of the seed presumably coming to the UK, Miller said.
He is now appealing to the public for clues.
In the United States, many of the seeds were given away to state forest organizations in 1975 and 1976 to be planted as part of the country’s biennial celebration. According to NASA, a lobed pine was planted in the White House. Trees were also planted in Washington Square in Philadelphia, in the International Forest of Friendship in Valley Forge, and at various universities and NASA centers.
Miller was able to locate a ‘crescent tree’ that originated from a cut taken from one of the moon trees planted in the United States. The crescent tree grows in a private garden in the town of Flamstead in the Chiltern Hills in north London. The RAS was promised to cut down the tree for its two hundredth anniversary.
“We are incredibly grateful for that,” Miller said. “But we still want to know if Apollo 14 seeds came to the UK, and – if so – exactly what happened to them?”
His crew, the late Roosa, decided to take something in honor of American forests, a tribute to his past as a smoke jumper – someone parachuting into remote wilderness areas to put out wildfires.
Subsequently, scientists were eager to study the seeds, because at the time, few experiments tested the effect of space on botanical samples. The Forest Service studied the genetic structure of the seeds and examined whether they would sprout and grow normally. (They have.)
The UK is also home to seven apple trees that went on a mission to the space station. The UK Space Agency has grown the seeds from the tree that inspired Isaac Newton to discover gravity.
“Sending seeds to space helps us to understand the effect of the unique environment on the biological composition of seeds. Understanding the effects of space on unminated seeds is crucial for future space missions, even when we have the want to sustain human life beyond the earth, “Libby said. Jackson, Human Exploration Manager at the UK Space Agency, in a statement.
“Space has a wonderful way of inspiring people. We saw the excitement when space trees planted from the seeds of Newton’s apple tree were planted on our land. I would be interested to discover if any of the moon seeds after the The United Kingdom has become one of them. ‘