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Meet the Nasalnaut
Roland Piquepaille writes "George Aldrich works at NASA and is not an astronaut. Instead, he's a 'master sniffer.' He tests everything that goes up in space on the shuttle or on the ISS for smelliness, from tennis shoes to teddy bears, and from refrigerators to socks or mascara. Why? Because things smell different in spacecrafts which experience a full day/night cycle every 90 minutes. And bad odors into a spacecraft can even lead to the abortion of a mission, like it happened to a Russian mission back in 1976. Wired Magazine tells us more about NASA's nasalnaut, a man whose colleagues call "Most Smella Fella" and has performed 771 flawless smelling missions. This overview contains more details and selected excerpts from a previous interview with Aldrich given to New Scientist. It also includes a picture showing how the NASA's nasalnaut smells things."
Wow, 771 FLAWLESS smelling missions. Our tax dollars at work.
Just because you disagree doesn't make it offtopic or flamebait.
that Febreze would be a cheaper solution...
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
Can't we just give the astronauts nose plugs and be done with it?
He should post his profile on Dogster.com. Sniff. Sniff.
to CowboyNeal's house.
It certainly sounds like he nose what he's doing.
That's a pretty vague word to describe a smell.
Imagine that - the perfect smell. Eau de Space - available in 75 ml bottles.
Jack just slipped a stinker! Awful egg-ish odor! Requesting permission to abort mission!
My cousin has worked on a fishing boat for years, he's not an aquanaut, he's a "master baiter".
And bad odors into a spacecraft can even lead to the abortion of a mission
DAMNIT Jim, I TOLD you not to eat that broccoli!!!
bash: rtfm: command not found
10. 34-year-old Tang someone left in orbit after one of the apollo missions
9. Dmitri's socks
8. Even in space, monkeys fling poo
7. When Galactus forgets to use deoderant, half the quadrant knows about it
6. Someone left the windows in MIR open again
5. Venturing too close to the Onion Planet
4. "The Phantom Menace"
3. Smell bits of alien underwear (thank you Douglas Adams)
2. Saddam's WMDs hidden on Mars (see today's Mars news items)
1. And the number one stinky problem in space: "Star Trek: Voyager"
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Stink, the final fronteer.
Capt'n Jean Luc Picknose and the crew of the Stinkerprize are on a five year mission.
To Hell with the prime directive Number One, put on some deoderant!
Finally someone can answer the question:
"Who got da funk?"
Send whiskey and fresh horses!
Do the astronauts get lonely or something? Teddy bears?
Sounds like a candidate for The Worst Jobs in Science.
Although, he can tell people he works for NASA, and leave it at that.
...don't question it!!!
Not a lot of porta-potties in space...
I've got four grandchildren and when my wife's changing their diapers I try to stay far enough away from her to avoid the smell, because I try not to shock my nose.
Who wouldn't love to have that excuse.
Sorry, no nose, no job. I have to protect it.
I'm not sure how they measured it either, but it can't have been pleasant. I think it involved a tube...
Aldrich has smelled stuffed animals, cameras, film, grease, oil, tampons, toothpaste, aftershave, an IBM laptop, cosmonaut Alexander Lazutkin's photo album, and Disposable Absorption Containment Trunks (adult diapers for space walks).
:)
Perfect for anyone with a weird fetish.
I claim first use of "Error No. 0B" - or "No. 0B error." It'll be the new ID 10T!
They probably arm them with lots of Beano before they go up :)
Who needs WiFi when we can have Packet Over Sheep! http://datacomm.org/PoS-InternetDraft.txt
And here I thought NASA had technology to take care of this remotely.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
I thought the Russians used a pencil ;)
No, they just avoid Mexican food [in space].
Kid: "Mom, why does Dad always go right to the Mexican restaraunt after his capsule lands?"
Mom: "Please don't ask, dear. I don't like explaining it."
Table-ized A.I.
You had better luck with Google. This guy says that the Russian missions abort you.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
Half a litre? Oh give me a break. I can fart two gallons in a day if I need to.
If I was an astronaut, I would smuggle on a philly steak, float next to one end of the module, and see if I could cut a huge fart and shoot across the room. Actually, it must get pretty boring on a space flight. I'll bet those guys do it all the time. There are certainly fart propelled speed records for several spacecraft. Definately for MIR.
-B
What about the smell of Jizz? As much as I like producing it, I'm not crazy about the smell.
Joining the 150 Mile High Club would be fun, but the aftersmell wouldn't be.
wbs.
Huh?
As long as you don't ask me to smell Uranus.
The smelloscope?
Come on, people!
Of course they're really more like emissions!
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk