What does Mississippi have to do with getting to the Moon? What are the laws concerning the Moon? We’ll find out with the help of our guest Michelle L.D. Hanlon, Executive Director, Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law and Co-Founder, President & CEO of For All Moonkind

In 1971, Apollo 14 was the third Moon mission of the U.S. Apollo space program, but the flight was unique in one way: tree seeds were taken on the flight to later germinate “Moon Trees”! When selected for the Apollo 14 mission, Astronaut Stuart Roosa was allowed to carry approximately 500 tree seeds with him into space. The species selected were sycamore, loblolly pine, sweetgum, redwood, and Douglas fir, taken from lots of seeds collected at two U.S.F.S. Institute of Forest Genetics (I.F.G.) stations, the southern station in Gulfport, Mississippi, and the western station in Placerville, California. Mississippi State University proudly displays its Sycamore Moon Tree on campus near the Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field, the home playing venue for the Mississippi State Bulldogs football team. A Sycamore was planted at Camp Iti Kana, a Girl Scout camp near Wiggins, Mississippi. There’s is located near the camp flagpole.

A “Moon Tree” was planted on the grounds of Bayou Academy in Cleveland, Mississippi in late May 2024. As a seed, the Sweetgum traveled 270,000 miles around the moon aboard the Orion spacecraft in 2022.

NASA Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi is contributing directly to the agency’s effort to land the first woman, the first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon – for the benefit of all humanity. Work at the nation’s largest – and premier – propulsion test site will help power SLS (Space Launch System) rockets on future Artemis missions to enable long-term lunar exploration and prepare for the next giant leap of sending the first astronauts to Mars.

Michelle's inspiration: Star Trek

Liz's thoughts about items left on the moon: Salvage One

Adam remembered The Expanse (tv show and book series)

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