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The Smell of Space
According to NASA scientists, space smells a lot like my uncle's workshop. One can detect hints of fried steak, hot metal, and the welding of a motorbike. They have hired Steven Pearce, a chemist and managing director of fragrance manufacturing company Omega Ingredients, to recreate the smell in a laboratory. NASA will use his research to help train potential astronauts. Steven said, "I did some work for an art exhibition in July, which was based entirely on smell, and one of the things I created was the smell of the inside of the Mir space station. NASA heard about it and contacted me to see if I could help them recreate the smell of space to help their astronauts."
Wow, guys. You didn't even need to read the article-- the summary states that this is the smell of the MIR space station.
Wow, guys. You didn't even need to read the article-
Actually, if you DO read the article (the one linked from the older slashdot post), you'll see that the airlock operator noticed the smell on the spacesuits of his fellow astronauts after each spacewalk.
Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
Actually, you're pretty ignorant. I fly for a living; and smells have saved my life. Knowing what "normal" smells like lets you recognize and analyze abnormal smells. Is that smell burning hydraulic fluid or misting hydraulic fluid? The difference is important, when you decide what to do about a hydraulic leak. (e.g. Do you turn off bleed air and pressurization and electrics because it's a fire, or do you isolate hydraulic systems so that you only loose one when the system fails completely). In other words, it's not a PR stunt, it's worthwhile training.
Too bad I just ran out of mod points. This would be my best guess as to why they're trying to recreate space smells. Particularly onboard the ISS, it's a really big deal if something inside the station ends up leaking or burning. And if you're operating something critical like an airlock and you start smelling something funny, that's definitely something to worry about. Here's an article from a couple years ago where the crew smelled something strange and ended up shutting down the entire ventilation system until they identified the odor: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/ISS_Goes_Into_Emergency_Mode_After_Chemical_Leak_999.html
Perhaps you didn't understand the same but the article doesn't say that they try to recreate the smelll within a spacecraft, but the smell of *space*.
Interplanetary or interstellar space is not empty but contains gas and dust particles. This medium is extraordinary dilute (typically 1-10^5 atoms/cm^3 and 99% of this is made of odorless hydrogen and helium). Despite this low concentration, accumulated over light-years this medium adds up to and makes structures like nebulae and dark clouds seen on telescopic pictures.
As I understand, the article describes the effort to recreate the smell of this dilute space stuff. In reality astronauts will never be able to smell it because the concentration is way too low. In comparison the air we breath contains about 10^20 molecules/cm^3.
Correct. The story was posted before on the main page. http://science.slashdot.org/science/08/02/13/1418216.shtml
Actually, astronauts have reported after spacewalks that their space suits collect a semi-metallic, sweet smell to them after they return to the shuttle/vehicle. Of course, depending upon the nature of the spacewalk, this could have been a collection of fine particles from welding and repairing a satellite, or exhaust that collected to the exterior of the shuttle during launch. Here's a link to NASA.gov with an astronaut's recounting of smelling 'space residue' http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp6/spacechronicles4.html