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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."
But does it has a flavor?
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NASA will use his research to help train potential astronauts.
It's okay Richard, just try opening the helmet for few seconds.
Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in trouble again.
Wow, guys. You didn't even need to read the article-- the summary states that this is the smell of the MIR space station.
It has a smell likely because we perceive sensations by association, in a relative manner. It's a cute (though somewhat frivolous) trick to simulate this association by engineering.
If you've ever been in an acoustically-isolated chamber, the silence is so overwhelming that it almost has its own sound. We're just not used to such near-perfect silence, so we try to interpret the novelty as a sound.
Similarly, if you put near-pure (95%) alcohol on your tongue, it will feel greasy because it is so dry that it dehydrates your tongue. The absence of water feels greasy.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
You can smell underwater , well not you per se- there's a creature - a shrew or vole I think, or maybe muskrat. Anyways there is a Rat like creature that when underwater blows a small bubble of air out it's nose and then sucks it back (kinda the inverse of the spit/snot drop we've all done as kids). This allows it to smell the water and the scent of things in the water. It can actually track underwater by smell.
I think this story is referring to the locker room smell of human habitats in space, not actually the smell of space. But there are chemicals in space - it's not actually nothing nothing nothing and then planets and sun. In theory one could put atmosphere into a sample of 'vacuum' and try to sniff anything that volatilizes. But concentrations of matter are so low in space that it still seems kinda implausible.
So my point is, I don't know how to smell space, but I didn't know how smell underwater either until I watched the discovery channel.
The rock, the vulture, and the chain
it's full of smells!
In space no one can hear you fart.
Wtf, so they're able to smell it now?!
When you shoot a mime, do you use a silencer?
That's odd.... the things described as being space seem to smell exactly like Ozone.
How odd.
I give it an A minus....minus! - prof. wernstrom
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.
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Exactly. And now, Saturn.
Fry: Pine needles. Oh, man, this is great... hey, as long as you don't make me smell Uranus.
Leela: I don't get it.
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.
Fry: Oh. What's it called now?
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Urrectum. Here, let me locate it for you.
Fry: No, no, I, I think I'll just smell around a bit over here.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
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.
Back in February
-Peter
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
Bingo.
Could you imagine if humans lost the ability to smell smoke? A hell of a lot more of us(no pun intended) would burn to death in fires were it not for our ability to do so.
NASA simply realizes the importance of smell in many aspects, from diagnosis of a problem to the signaling of humans that a problem exists in the first place.
Astronaut A reenters the shuttle. Astronaut B smells something OTHER then the smell of space on the suit of astronaut A as he reenters. At this point it can be assumed it is time to take a closer look at the situation.
The point is that knowing what space smells like establishes a scent baseline allowing for better analysis of the situation.
Well, thanks to you, at least I'm not ignorant anymore. Actually, this makes a lot of sense to me, now. I take a train to work every day. Sometimes, when the engineer has to brake real hard, the breaks give off that familiar "burning your brakes" smell. One time I mentioned it to the conductor, when he was checking my ticket. He quipped:
Oh, that's nothing . . . a total brake failure smells entirely different. And you would notice it immediately . . . because I would not be checking tickets!"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
If you've ever been in an acoustically-isolated chamber, the silence is so overwhelming that it almost has its own sound. We're just not used to such near-perfect silence, so we try to interpret the novelty as a sound.
I thought what you hear is the sound of yourself? You know, blood streaming and stuff. Ah, right, here we go.
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
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