Mystery moon domes
As part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services or clips, researchers are sending science instruments to the moon. One of those instruments will study a mysterious part of the moon: the Gruithuisen domes.
The domes formed from silicic lava, something we only see on earth from water and plate tectonics, making scientists wonder how these domes formed on the moon, The Lunar-VISE mission will do just that. With five instruments, the mission will study the dome over ten Earth days, collecting data and returning it to Earth.
UCF’s Kerri Donaldson Hanna is the principal investigator of Lunar-VISE and works alongside Addie Dove, the deputy-principal investigator of Lunar-VISE and a professor at UCF. Donaldson said she hopes Lunar-VISE can uncover these moon secrets.
“Do you see vast oceans on the moon?” Donaldson Hanna said. “The answer is no. We also don't see evidence for plate tectonics on the moon. So then how could we be getting similar types of rocks on the moon? That’s where that science question is really being driven from.”
Part of the mission will include using a camera to capture images of the domes. Donaldson Hanna said she gets emotional thinking about what it will be like to see those images once the mission launches.
“Certainly, we're doing this for our team and ourselves, but we also see the responsibility of doing it for the community, and the United States and the world,” Donaldson Hanna said. “Everyone's going to be able to use our data, not just us. And everyone's going to be able to see those images, not just us.”
The University of Central Florida has coined the nickname “Space-U” for the university’s contributions to space and planetary exploration. Donaldson Hanna said she is proud of the Lunar-VISE project and to be a professor at UCF inspiring the next generation of space enthusiasts.
“I think it's really cool to try to tie in what I'm going to be lecturing for the day into what's going on in the news,” Donaldson Hanna said. “Some of that has been involving talking about the Lunar-VISE work and some of the other projects I'm working on. I think the students, certainly seem very excited to know that these types of projects are happening here at UCF.”
Tracking down the lost moon trees
Astronaut Stuart Roosa carried a variety pack of tree seeds on 1971’s Apollo 14 mission.
It included seeds for sweetgums, Douglas firs, loblolly pines, sycamores and redwoods.
While the trees did come back to Earth and were planted, some of them did not survive germination. An estimated 120 trees were planted around the United States, but an exact record of the trees was never kept, leaving the status of many of these trees unknown.
Space Science Data Researcher Dave Williams is trying to find and keep records of these moon trees. He said with time, many people forgot they existed and when they were first planted, people feared for the safety of the trees.
“A lot of places people were really worried that after they planted them, that someone would come along and steal them,” Williams said. “It’d be pretty easy to do, you could pretty much just, pull them out of the ground practically... So, they didn't mark them, a lot of times they would come back and mark the trees. But other times, I have a feeling that you know, time went on people move along to three years later. That it’s kind of been forgotten.”
In the beginning, part of Williams’s job involved working with the old Apollo data. His journey to research the moon trees began when a Girl Scout and her teacher reached out to Williams after seeing a moon tree nearby.
“I got online, of course, this is like 1996, so we didn't have the search engines and the amount of material online wasn't quite what it is today,” Williams said. “But I found a little bit about the moon trees. And then I also contacted the NASA history office, and they sent me some, some newspaper clippings, they had a little file, and it had like three or four newspaper clippings. So, I kind of went through all this, I kind of put it together... I thought this is such a great story. And no one knows about it.”
While his research is fun, he said it has a deeper meaning. Willams said this research helps him connect with the space program and people around the nation in a unique way.
“Stuart Roosa really wanted to sort of pay tribute to his time in the Forest Service,” Williams said. “He was always a real nature lover, apparently. And he really wanted to pay tribute to that…he actually brought these seeds with them to the moon brought them back and, and now they're all over the country…I hear from all people all over the country, and I get all these stories and hear about the trees, so I'm definitely enjoying it myself.”
