Student Emily Aguesse helps clear a hole to plant a small giant sequoia tree from NASA's Artemis I Mission's tree seeds, which travelled around the moon twice, in Lake Forest, Calif., in October, 2024.Damian Dovarganes/The Associated Press

Aaron Boley is the co-author of Who Owns Outer Space: International Law, Astrophysics, and the Sustainable Development of Space. He is a professor of astrophysics at the University of British Columbia.

There are trees that have been to the moon.

In 1971, smokejumper-turned-astronaut Stuart Roosa piloted the Apollo 14 command module on its lunar voyage, carrying hundreds of seeds from five different tree species. The question was, in part, whether the seeds could survive travel into deep space and germinate once returned to Earth. More than 400 sprouted.

“Moon trees” can be found throughout the United States, with a limited number in Switzerland, Brazil and Japan. Unfortunately, the locations of many of these giant space travellers have been lost with time.

Crewed space exploration has long experimented with seeds and animals. Kosmos 110 in 1966 launched the dogs Veterok and Ugolyok into orbit about Earth, remaining there for 22 days before returning alive. The dogs were not alone. The spacecraft carried seeds that germinated while in orbit, growing lettuce and cabbage.

As a historic mission nears, astronaut Jeremy Hansen explains why Canada is moonward bound

Since........

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