40 yrs ago: "we choose to go to the moon."It was hard. Now for mankind to keep Earth green, it's to be much harder

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July 20, 1969 saw the first human footsteps on the moon. John F. Kennedy remarked, "we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not only because they are easy, but because they are hard." Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, after he snapped the historic Earthrise photo on December 1968, said, "we came all this way to explore the moon and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth." Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa, a former U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper, took with him tree seeds from a Loblolly Pine, Sycamore, Sweet Gum, Redwood, and Douglas Fir. After Roosa's return to Earth, the original seeds were germinated by the U.S. Forest Service and the result was "moon trees." Moon trees now grow in many places. A Moon Sycamore also shades Roosa's grave at Arlington National Cemetery.

The Apollo 11 mission was the 1st manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the 5th human spaceflight of Project Apollo and the 3rd human voyage to the Moon or Moon orbit. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr. On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon, while pilot Michael Collins orbited overhead.

NASA, the United States National Arboretum and American Forests teamed up to celebrate Earth Day 2009 by planting a historic Moon Sycamore on the arboretum's grounds in Washington. "Astronauts have described the view of Earth as a grand oasis in the vastness of space," said Alan Ladwig, a senior advisor to the NASA administrator. "Since any good oasis comes with lots of greenery, it is fitting that today we plant this Sycamore, which is a legacy tree grown from descendant seeds of Stuart Roosa's original Apollo experiment. It is a solid reminder that space exploration and life here on Earth are inextricably tied."

Second Generation "Moon Trees" (Trees planted from seeds or cuttings from an original "Moon Tree") - click on the link to see Moon Trees at different locations.

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Photos courtesy of: NASA / Bill Anders (astronaut), and Bill Ingalls

Original Source: NASA and Wikipedia