As Neil Armstrong once said, “the Eagle has landed.”
In this case, it would be a seed.
At the end of last year, Prosper High School sent an application to receive a moon tree. Prosper’s request was then approved at the beginning of the year, leading to the planting of the moon tree on Nov. 15. The Artemis Moon Tree is a project that was created by a partnership between NASA and the USDA where seeds were taken up into space by Stuart Roosa, a USDA smoke jumper, on the Apollo 14 mission. This led to several missions taking place, including the Artemis 1 mission where Prosper’s moon tree is from. Then, they were brought back down after orbiting the moon where they had the ability to grow on Earth.
“The seeds orbited the Moon and went farther than any human has gone since the Apollo missions and went through like two different types of radiation belts and all the fun things,” future ready designer Stephanie Riley said. “And then once they came back, USDA germinated them in different schools and institutions to apply to get one, and we were selected to get one.”
Riley said she was exhilarated about the moon tree’s arrival.
“I am a giant space nerd,” Riley said. “I love NASA, SpaceX rockets, all of it. I think just getting to have a piece of that and kind of sharing it with everyone, especially maybe getting students into it— it’s really cool.”
The moon tree is planted outside the PHS greenhouse where staff and students are able to see it displayed.
“There are so many different ways to bring everybody into this. I’m excited for it to just kind of be a good kind of collaboration point,” Riley said. “We were selected out of a large number of applicants to be a recipient of this, so it’s a big honor.”
To commemorate the privilege of PHS being sent a moon tree, a ceremony after the planting will take place Dec. 12 from noon to 12:30 p.m. All students are invited.
“We will probably do one after the tree is planted,” Riley said. “We’re working on finalizing that date right now. We’re hoping it’ll be in December.”
Additionally, students were able to partake in naming the moon tree.
“(Students can participate in naming the moon tree) in the weekly newsletter that gets sent out and in the hallway TVs and different places around the Nest,” Riley said. “They can follow the link or the QR code and enter their name for what they think the moon tree (name) should be,” Riley said.
Riley acknowledges the importance of the moon tree shipment.
“I’m super excited,” Riley said. “I had kind of forgotten about it because it took, like, a year to hear back from because I applied last October and then heard at the beginning of August, just kind of out of the blue. So it’s super exciting.”
President of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Club junior Aryan Vaghela shares a similar sentiment.
“What many astronomers, myself included, enjoy most about the field is being able to dive into the unknown in order to make new discoveries and create a societal impact,” Vaghela said. “The moon tree at PHS to me is a symbol of one of many new feats which were accomplished through space travel and exploration, which could only have been possible with astronomy.”
To students at PHS, the moon tree is something that acts as a monument– one, in this case, from the moon.
“I would simply like to reiterate how special our school is for being one from the handful of high schools that received a tree that went to the moon,” Vaghela said. “Isn’t that crazy?”
