Lifestyle
The Travelers: How Moon Trees Hide Among Us
In this episode of 'The Travelers,' we explore the fascinating story of Smoky Rusa, an astronaut who took tree seeds to the moon during Apollo 14. Discover how these 'moon trees' c...
The Travelers: How Moon Trees Hide Among Us
Lifestyle •
0:00 / 0:00
Interactive Transcript
spk_0
Terrestrials is supported by the John Templeton Foundation, funding research and catalyzing
spk_0
conversations that inspire people with awe and wonder.
spk_0
Learn about the latest discoveries in the science of wellbeing, complexity, forgiveness,
spk_0
and free will at Templeton.org.
spk_0
Oh, wait, you're listening.
spk_0
Okay.
spk_0
Okay.
spk_0
All right.
spk_0
Door listening to radio lab.
spk_0
Forget radio from WNYC.
spk_0
Three, two, one.
spk_0
Imagine that you're teeny, teeny tiny and you have this hard shell.
spk_0
But inside that hard shell is everything you need to start growing to 200 feet tall.
spk_0
And you are all set to be an earthling until somebody launches you, hurls you toward the
spk_0
moon.
spk_0
And you travel 250,000 miles.
spk_0
The farthest that any living thing has ever been.
spk_0
You see the far side of the moon where all there is is stars.
spk_0
And then you start falling.
spk_0
Back, back, back toward the earth at faster speeds where nobody is sure, it feels survive.
spk_0
But when you hit the soil, you feel the warm sun.
spk_0
And you unfurl from your shell.
spk_0
You have become a moon tree.
spk_0
A moon tree?
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
All right.
spk_0
Now is the part where I make you sing the theme song with me.
spk_0
To restrials, to restrials.
spk_0
We are not the worst.
spk_0
We are the best strials.
spk_0
Yes, we are.
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
You got it.
spk_0
To restrials is a show where we uncover the strangeness waiting right here on Planet
spk_0
Earth.
spk_0
I am your host, Lumiiller, joined as always by my song, bud.
spk_0
If you believe, Alan.
spk_0
We're going to see the moon.
spk_0
And today we are joined by one of our favorite storytellers, one of the people who fact-tacks
spk_0
our terrestrials episodes to make sure everything we're saying is true.
spk_0
Can you please introduce yourself?
spk_0
Hello, I'm Natalie Middleton.
spk_0
So it's funny that you are the person on our team who kind of certifies truth because
spk_0
you are bringing us a story that sounds like science fiction, like sci-fi.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
Where do we start?
spk_0
This whole story begins all thanks to a firefighter called Stu Smoky-Rusa.
spk_0
Ooh, Smoky-us is middle name?
spk_0
That's his nickname.
spk_0
Smoky, okay, Smoky-us firefighter.
spk_0
Originally born in Colorado in 1933.
spk_0
Redhead, Freckles, Tall, kind of Linky, Prankster, Hughes, Whip Smart, really good at math.
spk_0
And he absolutely loved trees.
spk_0
And after high school, he got a job with the Forest Service trying to fight this fungus
spk_0
called Blister Rust, which is a fungus that is really hard for trees to survive.
spk_0
So you're saying he loved them so much?
spk_0
His actual job was to protect them from getting sick?
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
And so every summer after that, he would go and fight fires.
spk_0
What he became was called a Smok jumper.
spk_0
A smoke jumper?
spk_0
That sounds a little scary.
spk_0
It's pretty dangerous.
spk_0
So they're jumping out of planes with a parachute basically into the fire.
spk_0
Wow.
spk_0
Are they wearing like firemen gear like the jacket?
spk_0
It's actually kind of similar to like an astronaut suit.
spk_0
And at some point as he's floating through space, he wonders what it would be like to float
spk_0
through space.
spk_0
Higher space.
spk_0
Outer space.
spk_0
So first, he learns how to fly a plane.
spk_0
Yes, then he trains and becomes an astronaut.
spk_0
He just kind of went up higher in the sky.
spk_0
And one day, NASA tells him he's going to the moon, the Apollo 14, and his job, he's
spk_0
going to be the pilot.
spk_0
Wow.
spk_0
He's flying the spaceship?
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
Wow.
spk_0
Go, Smoky.
spk_0
It's a big job.
spk_0
So the year is 1971, the spacecraft is all loaded up with gear and fuel and each astronaut
spk_0
gets to bring with them one little bag.
spk_0
It's not big.
spk_0
It's like almost like a pocket size.
spk_0
It's made for a special type of glass.
spk_0
Yes, that won't melt until it's hotter than over a thousand degrees Fahrenheit.
spk_0
Whoa.
spk_0
That's like a furnace.
spk_0
Very fireproof.
spk_0
And what can they put in there?
spk_0
Is it like their license and toothbrush?
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
So astronauts actually just get to bring whatever is meaningful to them.
spk_0
Oh.
spk_0
What would you bring?
spk_0
Oh.
spk_0
So I have a daughter that's two.
spk_0
She drew a train and yeah, I would probably bring that.
spk_0
What did Smoky bring?
spk_0
So out of everything that he could have thought to take on Earth, he chose to take tree seeds.
spk_0
Back to his love of trees.
spk_0
He can't shake it.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
He brought a big handful of five types of seeds.
spk_0
Sweet gum, leafy trees from the east coast of the US, loblolly pine.
spk_0
They're from the south.
spk_0
Loblolly, looblolly, looblolly, looblolly, that's fun to say.
spk_0
We have the redwood tree.
spk_0
Oh, those big giants on the west coast that are too big to even hug.
spk_0
Then we have the sycamore, super tall leafy ones, lots of them in the middle of the country.
spk_0
The last one is the Douglas fir.
spk_0
It's like a Christmas tree.
spk_0
It's our often Douglas firs, right?
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
They chose trees that could be grown all across the whole entire country.
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
And they put them in this aluminum metal canister very small.
spk_0
It fits in the palm of your hand.
spk_0
So 500 of these seeds fit in the palm of Smoky's hand.
spk_0
Wow.
spk_0
And so the day of the launch, he puts this canister of seeds in his little white fireproof bag,
spk_0
waves to the masses, and steps on to the spacecraft.
spk_0
From a scientific standpoint, people just didn't know what would happen to a plant or a seed
spk_0
if you took it up into deep space.
spk_0
Had no one ever taken one up before?
spk_0
spk_0
So this was the first time.
spk_0
Huh.
spk_0
And he had a scientific question.
spk_0
What would happen if we brought another living thing up into space with us that's different
spk_0
than us?
spk_0
Would it survive?
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
Would it survive?
spk_0
Would it grow differently?
spk_0
Would it look like a totally different kind of tree?
spk_0
Because as now we explain, they knew that space affected humans.
spk_0
When you're out in space, you're exposed to stronger radiation from the sun and galactic
spk_0
cosmic rays.
spk_0
And this radiation can wiggle its way into your DNA, the blueprint that tells your body
spk_0
how to grow and potentially warp things.
spk_0
Plus, the lowered gravity can weaken your bones and muscles, and oddly because of something
spk_0
about how time works in space you age just a tiny bit slower.
spk_0
Which is still a really understand, but I gotta keep moving on with the story.
spk_0
And so smoky and some of his fellow tree lovers at the Forest Service wondered, would
spk_0
space have an effect on the cells and DNA inside trees?
spk_0
Did he have any hypotheses on how space travel might affect growth of these trees?
spk_0
I looked, there's nothing that indicates what he thought except that he thought it was
spk_0
a cool idea.
spk_0
Okay.
spk_0
Well, lucky for you, Natalie.
spk_0
I put the question to a bunch of children.
spk_0
Oh!
spk_0
And would you like to hear some of their answers?
spk_0
Yes, I would.
spk_0
Maybe I'd have to grow now with any water.
spk_0
It would probably have different needs instead of like water, maybe something else, different
spk_0
chemicals helping it grow.
spk_0
Maybe I would have to be growing on no gravity.
spk_0
So how would that make the tree look different?
spk_0
So fresh as a arch and then turn the spark, trying to go upwards a little higher because
spk_0
of just like the generally lower gravity on the moon.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
And there's also going to be berries, golden berries, grind berries, a blinds berry.
spk_0
Maybe like blue leaves and white trunk.
spk_0
Ooh, he looks like a palm tree.
spk_0
But, that's like a what tree?
spk_0
A palm tree.
spk_0
Oh, it's like a palm tree.
spk_0
But like, I'm gray.
spk_0
But inside of the coconut tree is a piece from the moon.
spk_0
Ooh, is it hard or soft inside?
spk_0
It tastes like eel grou.
spk_0
And probably a little metal in it.
spk_0
And at the end of the moon, there were like little moon, like half-cresses and full-cresses
spk_0
and stuff like that.
spk_0
And if you touch one, you'll start to feel like tingling your hand.
spk_0
And if you give one to your animal, your animal will get this little moon shape on its forehead
spk_0
and then they'll be able to like fly and stuff.
spk_0
Oh my god, Lulu, these are so...
spk_0
I just put the question out.
spk_0
Isn't this great?
spk_0
It just catches imagination, doesn't it?
spk_0
It's so fitting, Lulu, because it's really thanks to a third grader that we even know about this story.
spk_0
Wait, what?
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
That story.
spk_0
Close, blast off.
spk_0
After this short break.
spk_0
10.
spk_0
9.
spk_0
8.
spk_0
7.
spk_0
6.
spk_0
5.
spk_0
4.
spk_0
3.
spk_0
2.
spk_0
1.
spk_0
Blast off.
spk_0
Goodbye, Smoky.
spk_0
What are the other names of the other astronauts?
spk_0
Edgar Mitchell and Alan Shepard.
spk_0
Goodbye, Ed.
spk_0
Goodbye, Alan.
spk_0
Goodbye, Happy Backflow Seeds.
spk_0
The fuel ignites.
spk_0
And on the outside, the spacecraft looks pretty slow.
spk_0
But on the inside, everything is rattling.
spk_0
The metal rivets are groaning and the seeds in the canister are bumping into each other.
spk_0
There's all this pressure from gravity trying to pull the spacecraft down,
spk_0
a man and one spin.
spk_0
His severes ties from Earth.
spk_0
And suddenly, the seeds and the astronauts are floating in zero G.
spk_0
And Smoky aligns his measurements and lurches the spacecraft toward the moon.
spk_0
Stuart, how's your penis better?
spk_0
Not enjoying any paediputters.
spk_0
This is audio from the actual space flight.
spk_0
Incredible.
spk_0
I just have really a wild place up here.
spk_0
For four days, they soar through space as that little moon in the sky grows bigger.
spk_0
And bigger, and bigger.
spk_0
It seems so close.
spk_0
It's like you just reach out and touch it.
spk_0
Until they are right next to it.
spk_0
Stuart, we just got worried that your family is listening to you,
spk_0
and they're outside looking up at that great big moon.
spk_0
I'm sure we'd all like to be up there with you.
spk_0
Over.
spk_0
And then Stuart, aka Smoky.
spk_0
Yeah, we should be.
spk_0
Releases Alan and Ed from the spacecraft to go land on the moon.
spk_0
I think like being up to your armpits is literally just...
spk_0
They get to go walk on the moon?
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
Lucky Alan, lucky Ed.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
And not only do they get to frolic around in moon dust,
spk_0
Alan brought a makeshift golf club and golf balls to hit.
spk_0
Because of the gravity, barely have to tap it and it just flies.
spk_0
Miles and miles and miles and miles.
spk_0
I'm just picturing like it's like Alan and Ed playing on the moon.
spk_0
And bouncing, feeling, doing what they do.
spk_0
And Smoky doesn't get to go.
spk_0
Yeah, well that's what I thought, but actually for every moon mission
spk_0
where people land on the moon, there's one astronaut that stays in orbit around the moon.
spk_0
And it's a really important job because that's everybody's...
spk_0
I think it's important, but it sounds less fun.
spk_0
Okay, but you'll see why I say that.
spk_0
So the command module, so that's what Smoky is in.
spk_0
Let's do Russo, board Kitty Hawk.
spk_0
Okay, he's going to continue to orbit around...
spk_0
He's going to take pictures, he's going to do all these science experiments while he's...
spk_0
15-19th revolution of the moon.
spk_0
Orbiting and orbiting and orbiting.
spk_0
The 22nd lunar revolution, 23 Russo still apparently asleep.
spk_0
I think he orbits...
spk_0
30-second revolution, 34th.
spk_0
34 times.
spk_0
Oh, the moon?
spk_0
The moon.
spk_0
Wow.
spk_0
And what happens when you're orbiting the moon is that you end up going into the moon's shadow.
spk_0
Now passing over the back side of the moon.
spk_0
Which is called the far side of the moon.
spk_0
And when you do that, everything gets really dark.
spk_0
You can't see the sun.
spk_0
It's cold, the temperature drops, things get like really clammy.
spk_0
And then you also lose contact with everyone on Earth.
spk_0
We have had lots of signal with the command module, Kitty Hawk.
spk_0
And everyone on the moon.
spk_0
Literally, it's Stu Smoky-Rusa and these seeds in his pocket are the only living things in that corner of the world.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
Okay, Natalie, you're not selling me.
spk_0
I'm still...
spk_0
Well, let me hear it just like you are the most alone person of the entire living human race.
spk_0
You're cold, but guess this.
spk_0
You're also clammy when it's pitch dark.
spk_0
Okay, so...
spk_0
Other guys are like having fun bouncing, playing golf on the moon.
spk_0
So, yes, I left out the best part.
spk_0
So, when you're going around what happens is you suddenly see just this sheet of stars that just goes on forever and ever and ever.
spk_0
The astronauts that have experienced that have just like plunged into that side of space that no one ever gets to see.
spk_0
But, he can't admire the infinite void forever because he's starting to run out of gas.
spk_0
So, he brushes by the moon, picks up Alan and I, thanks, bro.
spk_0
Lurches the spacecraft back toward Earth.
spk_0
Let's see on the other side, over.
spk_0
And starts dive bombing toward it, traveling at over 16,000 miles per hour until...
spk_0
They splash down in the Pacific Ocean under these three huge orange and white parachutes.
spk_0
Huh.
spk_0
So, the seeds made it back to Earth.
spk_0
They traveled so far.
spk_0
And then during the decontamination process, the cleaning process, there was an extreme change in pressure and the bag of seeds.
spk_0
Explos...
spk_0
Oh no!
spk_0
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
spk_0
So, the seeds just exploded all over the place.
spk_0
And everybody thought that they had killed them.
spk_0
But the show must go on.
spk_0
The science must go on.
spk_0
So, they sent them to Forest Service Greenhouses where they planted all the seeds and soil.
spk_0
The sycamore seeds, which looked like tiny green pistachio nuts and the Douglas Furs, which looked like scales plucked from a pine cone and the sweet gums and loblolly pines and the mighty redwood, which all begins in a tiny package that looks a little like a flattened corn kernel.
spk_0
And they watered them and let the sun shine its warm rays.
spk_0
And then they waited.
spk_0
And they waited.
spk_0
And almost all of them came up.
spk_0
Oh!
spk_0
Whoa! And so that's how many little saplings are growing.
spk_0
The estimate is 420 to 450.
spk_0
Of the 500.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
And are they seeing any difference in that growth?
spk_0
I think about our kids and all the hypotheses and the spiral arms and the low gravity and the crescents.
spk_0
Like, was there, were they seeing any difference at first?
spk_0
Actually, there was no difference.
spk_0
At first.
spk_0
But trees, famously long living, take a long time to grow.
spk_0
Sometimes hundreds of years to reach their full height.
spk_0
So, to continue the experiment, NASA planted the baby moon trees all over the country.
spk_0
There was a moon tree planted at the White House.
spk_0
At state capitals.
spk_0
At NASA centers.
spk_0
At a governor's mansion.
spk_0
A military fort.
spk_0
But then they also got planted in front of a junior high at a Girl Scout camp right outside of a cemetery.
spk_0
So, just all of these places all over with regular people.
spk_0
Yeah, did anyone like to get one in their yard?
spk_0
Yes, people actually did.
spk_0
spk_0
Just like, yes.
spk_0
Diane and Nebraska.
spk_0
Yes, there are moon trees at private risk.
spk_0
How cool.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
The funny thing is, though, so when they would do these ceremonies, sometimes they would put a plaque in.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
But other times, they would just have the ceremony and they'd go along their merry way.
spk_0
And over time, people started to forget that these were moon trees.
spk_0
Time presses on.
spk_0
The Berlin Wall falls and the Mount St. Helens volcano erupts and the trees keep growing,
spk_0
holding their secret inside.
spk_0
And Smokey Rusa dies.
spk_0
And you are born and the moon keeps shining and the experiment is mostly forgotten.
spk_0
Until one day, a little girl in Indiana notices something funny at her Girl Scout camp.
spk_0
A sicklemore tree with a little plaque.
spk_0
Yeah, it just says like, Moon Tree, 1976.
spk_0
Huh.
spk_0
Nobody remembers even at the Girl Scout camp like what this was.
spk_0
So she tells her third grade class teacher, Ms. Goble about it.
spk_0
Ms. Goble emails NASA.
spk_0
Just says, hey, NASA.
spk_0
You're NASA.
spk_0
Question.
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
So the email finds its way to Dr. Dave Williams, who is a planetary scientist at NASA.
spk_0
And he doesn't know.
spk_0
Oh.
spk_0
And he told me that nobody remembered.
spk_0
Wow.
spk_0
And that there was no official record of where the trees had been planted.
spk_0
So Dave decides NASA should go on a recovery mission of sorts.
spk_0
And he starts a website that basically says, if you have a Moon Tree or you know of a Moon Tree, let me know.
spk_0
Wow.
spk_0
And he started getting these emails from people who were like, hey, there's a Moon Tree in my plaza, in my town.
spk_0
There's a Moon Tree in front of the hospital where I went.
spk_0
Slowly he's collected locations of these Moon Trees as people have kind of rediscovered them in their own backyards.
spk_0
And made kind of like a map.
spk_0
He didn't make a map.
spk_0
I made a map.
spk_0
You made a map?
spk_0
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
spk_0
Really?
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
Wow.
spk_0
In my map, you can spin the Earth and then you can like click on your to see what Moon Tree is close to you.
spk_0
And we have a link to this on our website and right here in the episode description, just click on Natalie's Moon Tree map.
spk_0
There we go.
spk_0
And Natalie?
spk_0
For about 63 miles, continue straight.
spk_0
We're going to go find our Moon Tree now.
spk_0
Realized there was one not too far from her in California in a town by the CE called San Luis Obispo, cool little surfing town.
spk_0
I'm walking down some stairs and I see a little creek.
spk_0
And it took me a while to find it.
spk_0
Holy cow.
spk_0
I found it.
spk_0
The plaque was very small.
spk_0
Like I can see how people kind of just walk right by.
spk_0
And I'm going to try to hug it and see if I can get my hands around it.
spk_0
Oh my gosh.
spk_0
Not even halfway around.
spk_0
And it smells so good.
spk_0
And when I saw it, it was just, I actually got kind of emotional.
spk_0
Like I went up to its trunk and I like touched its bark and I started to cry.
spk_0
Why?
spk_0
Space exploration is one of those things where not that many people get to experience it.
spk_0
And yet it's something that humans have wondered about for millennia.
spk_0
Ever since we could wonder, we were looking at the stars.
spk_0
And the Moon, so to be able to touch a living thing that has actually traveled all the way to the Moon and back and survived, it's a deep thing.
spk_0
So for you, the thing is like, is it almost like access?
spk_0
It's like almost getting to touch the Moon.
spk_0
It's poignant.
spk_0
I don't know, I don't know more of a kiddie word for that.
spk_0
It's like, well how would you describe poignant for someone who doesn't know what it means?
spk_0
I would say it's like a joyful kind of ache.
spk_0
We usually tend to think of trees as rooted and so to realize that these are travelers and that they've traveled so much farther than I will ever travel.
spk_0
Yeah.
spk_0
And then I looked up and it just, it has, redwood trees have these huge kind of feathered branches that are just so beautiful.
spk_0
And there were like little threads of spider silk that were like catching the sun, little rainbows of spider silk.
spk_0
There was like a squirrel jumping around up there, there were birds.
spk_0
I kind of went and sat on a bench nearby.
spk_0
And there was this whole construction crew that was on lunch break.
spk_0
And they all went and sat under the leaves of this moon tree.
spk_0
And I'm pretty sure they had no idea that it had been to the moon.
spk_0
And waiting to blow.
spk_0
This window of secrets sprouts from a sea.
spk_0
I want a new road, a true dangled in our roots.
spk_0
The things you've been through that make you you.
spk_0
I want a new road, a true dangled in our roots.
spk_0
And believe every tree holds a history.
spk_0
Tangle in the roots.
spk_0
Allen Govinsky.
spk_0
He is a good tree.
spk_0
He's a great one.
spk_0
Anyway, also I have some very exciting news, which is that we have acquired moon tree seeds.
spk_0
They are technically the seeds of moon trees making them what NASA calls half moon tree seeds.
spk_0
But they are still very cool and we are going to have a contest to give one away.
spk_0
That's right, to compete all you have to do is draw us a picture of a moon tree.
spk_0
What you think it would look like how a journey to the moon and cosmic rays might affect its growth,
spk_0
and we will pick our favorite.
spk_0
And the winner will get a half moon tree seed, the baby of a tree that went to the moon,
spk_0
and a real one that you can plant and see if it grows, you could put it on a shelf,
spk_0
you could give it a kiss, you could put it under your pillow for your luck.
spk_0
I don't know, but that's what we're going to do.
spk_0
That's our contest.
spk_0
Submit your drawing of a moon tree to us by New Year's Day, January 2026.
spk_0
Just email it to terrestrials at wnyc.org.
spk_0
That address one more time.
spk_0
T-R-R-E-S-T
spk_0
R-I-A-L-S
spk_0
SWNYC
spk_0
D-O-R-G
spk_0
And there's nothing else cool about that.
spk_0
What's that?
spk_0
Excuse me, I have a question.
spk_0
Me too.
spk_0
Me too.
spk_0
The batters.
spk_0
Listeners, with badgering questions for the expert.
spk_0
Are you ready?
spk_0
Yes.
spk_0
Hi, I'm Alex Winter, also known as Bill from Bill and Ted's excellent adventure.
spk_0
Most triumphant.
spk_0
My question is, is it true that time moves differently in space?
spk_0
Like if I had a twin and he went to space, would we be different ages?
spk_0
Oh, yeah.
spk_0
Earth ages faster.
spk_0
Oh, so if you went to space, you'd be younger?
spk_0
So Scott Kelley and his brother, Mark Kelley, are identical twin astronauts that did a science experiment.
spk_0
Basically, Scott went up and stayed for almost a year in space.
spk_0
Whoa!
spk_0
And because of something known as the twin paradox, time passed more slowly for Scott up in space than for his brother, Mark, here on Earth.
spk_0
And what that means is that Scott returned to Earth younger than his brother, Mark.
spk_0
How much younger?
spk_0
8.6 milliseconds younger.
spk_0
I don't understand, but I like it.
spk_0
Hi, I'm Tommy.
spk_0
I'm 11 years old, and my question is, with NASA, I've ever played seeds in space.
spk_0
They did.
spk_0
They did?
spk_0
Uh-huh.
spk_0
So they were called like the veggie experiments.
spk_0
Okay.
spk_0
In recent years, astronauts took vegetable seeds up to the International Space Station to see if they could grow them in hopes of like, if and when we kind of push our way out to Mars.
spk_0
The astronauts are going to have to grow their food.
spk_0
Like, they're not going to be able to pack all the food they need.
spk_0
Right, of course.
spk_0
So Scott Kelley, the twin, part of what he was doing in space for that whole year, was trying to grow plants.
spk_0
Oh my gosh!
spk_0
Yeah, but it's hard because watering them.
spk_0
So when you water plants in space, the water beets up in microgravity, and it makes it really hard for it to reach the roots.
spk_0
And so you have to sort of like force it into the soil.
spk_0
And NASA also was making him wear gloves so that he wouldn't accidentally get a mold or something from the soil.
spk_0
But the thing was, is that with the gloves on, he couldn't tell if the flowers were getting enough water or too much water.
spk_0
Oh, like he couldn't feel the soil kind of?
spk_0
Yeah, so finally he broke the rules.
spk_0
And he took his gloves.
spk_0
He took his gloves.
spk_0
Also, he could feel the soil.
spk_0
Yeah, and a little while later, check this out.
spk_0
Oh my gosh, you are showing me a picture of these gorgeous orange flowers?
spk_0
Are these blue mountain spaces?
spk_0
Yeah, these are called zineas, and they bloomed in space.
spk_0
Twinkle, twinkle little zineas.
spk_0
Hi, my name is Theo, and I'm nine years old.
spk_0
Does NASA have plans to keep studying moon trees?
spk_0
So the Artemis mission recently took seeds again to the moon?
spk_0
Oh, so moon trees part two.
spk_0
Yeah, moon trees part two.
spk_0
Okay, and I have one last question.
spk_0
By this point, have they located all of Smoky's original, you know, 450 moon trees?
spk_0
No, there's just over a hundred that they know the locations of now.
spk_0
Oh, so most of them are still missing?
spk_0
Most of them are still out there growing, and nobody knows that they went to the moon.
spk_0
But you can look for them.
spk_0
Look for their little plaques, and if you find one, drop an email to Natalie at NatalieMittleton.org
spk_0
so that she can add its location to her map, and more people can also touch the moon.
spk_0
Via tree.
spk_0
Natalie, I love knowing that this whole forgotten treasure map of trees with this lunar secret
spk_0
inside was unearthed by a third grader.
spk_0
Thanks to a third grader.
spk_0
All right, that is where we're going to leave it.
spk_0
Don't forget what secrets, what other worldly truths you might unearth for all of us.
spk_0
If you just stay curious, ask questions.
spk_0
So, pretend you know the answer just stays simply.
spk_0
What is this?
spk_0
What is that?
spk_0
What are you?
spk_0
Terrestrials was created by me, Lulu Miller, with WNYC Studios.
spk_0
This episode was produced by the very loony, like lunar, Tanya Chala, with sound design
spk_0
treats, spelled T-R-E-E, by Joe Plort.
spk_0
Our executive producer is Sarah Sandback.
spk_0
Our team also includes Alan Gafinski, Anna Gafinski, and Miraburr,
spk_0
when Tonic fact checking by Diane Kelly, who is always rooting for the truth.
spk_0
Special thanks to Sue Mance Prabhakar, who first nurtured this story at Orion Magazine.
spk_0
You can check out Natalie's gorgeous essays about MoonTrees and the Space Zinnias
spk_0
over at Orion Magazine.org.
spk_0
Thanks also to NASA scientist Dr. Dave Williams, who did so much work to uncover this map of MoonTrees.
spk_0
He has recently retired.
spk_0
Thanks also to NASA scientist Dr. Marie Henderson, third grade teacher, Joan Goble,
spk_0
and former third grade student, Trey Corley.
spk_0
Support for terrestrials is provided by the Simon's Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation,
spk_0
and the Templeton Foundation.
spk_0
Thank you!
spk_0
And one more time you can find all the links we talked about today.
spk_0
How to enter the contest to win a MoonTree seed, how to find a MoonTree near you,
spk_0
and how to submit a location of a MoonTree if you find one.
spk_0
All that on our website, terrestrialspodcast.org, just search for the episode,
spk_0
The Travelers, how MoonTrees hide among us.
spk_0
Oh, and finally, if you visit a MoonTree,
spk_0
snap a picture with it and tag us on social media at terrestrialspodcast.org.
spk_0
We'd love to see you.
spk_0
Alright, that'll do for today.
spk_0
See you in a couple spins of this dirty old planet of ours.
spk_0
Bye!