David R. Williams
Linda Hall Library
What You'll Learn
In 1971, Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa carried hundreds of tree seeds to the moon and back as part of an experiment with the National Forest Service. Back on Earth, the Forest Service germinated some of the seeds and gave trees to several states in 1975 and 1976 as part of the nation’s bicentennial celebration. Today, these “moon trees” can be found throughout the country.
In this talk, Dr. David Williams from NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center will explore the history of Colonel Roosa’s moon trees and the legacy of this little-known Apollo experiment.
This program will be presented online. After you register, you will receive an email that includes the link to watch the live stream on the date and time noted above.
The Speaker
Dr. David R. Williams
Acting Head, NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive
Goddard Flight Space Center
Dave is a planetary scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and the acting head of the NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive, one of NASA's deep archives for spacecraft data. Much of the older data in the archive is incomplete, on obsolete media, and/or has insufficient documentation to allow for optimal scientific use. One of Dave's projects is to restore these data and collect enough information to create metadata that will make the data permanently accessible to researchers. He also works on documenting older missions and instruments for historical and scientific purposes, and archiving the data steadily coming in from currently operating missions. Dave received his B.S. in Geophysics from Binghamton University and his Ph.D. in Geophysics and Space Physics from UCLA.