5 Moon Tree Species, 2000 Seedlings From NASA's Artemis I Mission to Be Planted Throughout the US by 2024

2000 seedlings of the five species of Moon trees, which were brought aboard NASA's Artemis I mission, will all be planted across the US in an effort to encourage future explorers.

NASA's Artemis Moon Tree Seedlings

A live piece of spaceflight history in the form of a seedling generated from a tree seed that went around the Moon on the Artemis I mission by NASA will be made available to education and community organizations across the United States thanks to a partnership between NASA and the USDA Forest Service.

The campaign aims to increase interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects.

Sycamores, sweetgums, Douglas firs, loblolly pines, and giant sequoias are among the five species of tree seedlings on the Artemis Moon that were propagated from seeds that had traveled 270,000 miles from Earth onboard the Orion spacecraft throughout the Artemis I mission in late 2022. Nearly 2,000 seeds, which will shortly be spread across the United States on Earth, are thought to have flown onboard the craft.

Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, said that the Artemis Moon trees help to bring the science and ingenuity of space research back to Earth. These seeds traveled 40,000 miles beyond the Moon last year on the Artemis I expedition. This new generation of Moon trees, with assistance from the USDA, will inspire the subsequent generation of explorers and sow the seeds of discovery throughout our communities.

Trees That Went to Space and Back

This will be the second time that seeds have been sown on Earth after traveling to the Moon. The first generation of seeds arrived in America in the 1970s thanks to Stuart Roosa, the Apollo 14 Command Module Pilot and a former smoke jumper for the Forest Service, who took them with him as a personal item.

The Forest Service was crucial in the germination and development of the seeds into seedlings, just as it was more than fifty years earlier. As Artemis Moon trees, the existing seedlings are now prepared to assume their new responsibilities.

The seeds that flew on the Artemis mission will soon grow into Moon Trees and will be standing proudly in universities and institutions around the nation, according to Randy Moore, chief of the Forest Service.

Like its predecessors, these future Moon Trees serve as a poignant reminder that nothing is impossible for those who put their minds to it. Future generations of scientists, whose work serves as the foundation for all the Forest Service does, will be inspired by them.

Taking Part

Applications for an Artemis Moon tree seedling must be submitted by Friday, October 6, for organizations that interact with schoolchildren or the general public. According to NASA, institutions that provide official and informal K-12 education, colleges, museums and science centers, community organizations, and governmental entities are all eligible.

To ensure that seedlings can thrive where they are planted, viability criteria will be used to award seedlings. Furthermore, based on geographic region in the contiguous United States, the Forest Service will determine the seedling species for chosen beneficiaries, and the seedling distribution will happen from 2023 to 2024.

The project is a collaboration between the Forest Service and NASA's Next-Gen STEM program.