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What space smells like

Posted by Robin on 21 February 2008 23 Comments

Each time, when I repressed the airlock, opened the hatch and welcomed two tired workers inside, a peculiar odor tickled my olfactory senses. At first I couldn't quite place it. It must have come from the air ducts that re-pressed the compartment. Then I noticed that this smell was on their suit, helmet, gloves, and tools. It was more pronounced on fabrics than on metal or plastic surfaces. It is hard to describe this smell; it is definitely not the olfactory equivalent to describing the palette sensations of some new food as "tastes like chicken." The best description I can come up with is metallic; a rather pleasant sweet metallic sensation.

— NASA ISS (International Space Station) Science Officer Don Pettit, from Expedition Six, Space Chronicles #4, found via Boing Boing.

Filed Under: perfume in the news

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23 Comments

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  1. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 10:47 am

    Sweet, pleasant, metallic – I'll keep that in mind when looking up to the stars next time. I like the idea of space smelling like that!

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  2. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 11:22 am

    Love that. Thank you.

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  3. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 11:31 am

    What a great find, R. I've always imagined it smelled very…human…up there; how satisfying to have the smell described by someone who's genuinely analysing it. And a bloke at that!

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  4. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 11:32 am

    Thanks so much for this! I've always wished they'd send some writers and artists up there so we could hear more details like this one.
    And it's very curious to me that I'm not surprised by this description. In fact, I feel like maybe I tested a perfume like that once…from the CDC line, perhaps?

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  5. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 12:00 pm

    How wonderful! The nerd part of me is wondering what it's from (radiation from the sun or something), but I also appreciate that outer space has a scent (and that it's not a fruity floral). Reminds me of C.S. Lewis' science fiction trilogy.

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  6. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 12:02 pm

    And this whole series is great – thanks for bringing it to our attention. Twenty years ago, who would have thought that we'd be reading a blog posted from space, as it were?

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  7. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 12:49 pm

    I like the idea too 🙂

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  8. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 12:49 pm

    🙂

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  9. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 12:50 pm

    Thank Boing Boing — one of my favorite sites!

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  10. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 12:51 pm

    CdG ought to have a “Space” series, LOL…

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  11. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 12:52 pm

    NASA's website is seriously wonderful — they do a much better job than most govt. agencies. My son manages to while away some time there 🙂

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  12. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 4:32 pm

    Thanks for posting this, it is fascinating. I had never thought about space or working in space having a smell. Nasa should send perfumers and organic chemists up there to investigate.

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  13. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 4:35 pm

    This is fascinating. If there's no air, how can space have a smell? I think they're smelling the space station itself: metal, plastics, etc.

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  14. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 8:13 pm

    You'll love this (NASA sends a rose into space):

    http://tinyurl.com/38vf3v

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  15. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 8:14 pm

    Beats me!

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  16. Anonymous says:
    21 February 2008 at 9:49 pm

    Think of all the metal compositions up there … must be in the purest form. I wonder where the sweetness comes from… Thanks for posting this!

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  17. Anonymous says:
    22 February 2008 at 3:42 am

    that is really cool. I wish there was more detail about how the scent molecule's structures differed from those released on earth. I guess that info is both proprietary and not of that much interest to the general public. I bet if I had an Astroculture enclosure my houseplants wouldn't die so often.

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  18. Anonymous says:
    22 February 2008 at 8:59 am

    While on Expedition 6 to the International Space Station, Don Pettit wrote a series called “Space Chronicles.” Check it out at:

    http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp6/spacechronicles.html

    He also wrote “Chronicles on Ice” while in Antartica:

    http://www.humanedgetech.com/expedition/nasa/

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  19. Anonymous says:
    22 February 2008 at 10:43 am

    Fantastic article, thanks for finding it! I'm such a nerd, it was absolute poetry for me! 🙂

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  20. Anonymous says:
    22 February 2008 at 11:15 am

    Thanks!

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  21. Anonymous says:
    22 February 2008 at 11:18 am

    I'm a nerd too 🙂

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  22. Anonymous says:
    22 February 2008 at 1:33 pm

    Sort of the scent version of the “music of the spheres”…

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  23. Anonymous says:
    25 February 2008 at 5:04 am

    Goodness, never realized that space has a smell!!

    Think outside the box is very applicable to me then 🙂

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