[TheForge] The Smell of Space - sorta OT

[Rob Fertner]

"The following are from a series of articles on the NASA website  by ISS
Science Officer Don Pettit:


The Smell of Space

Few people have experienced traveling into space. Even fewer have
experienced the smell of space. Now this sounds strange, that a vacuum could
have a smell and that a human being could live to smell that smell. It seems
about as improbable as listening to sounds in space, yet space has a
definite smell. Being creatures of an atmosphere, we can only smell space
indirectly. Sort of like the way a pit viper smells by waving its tongue in
the air and then pressing it to the roof of its mouth where sensors process
the molecules that have been adsorbed onto the waggling appendage. I had the
pleasure of operating the airlock for two of my crewmates while they went on
several space walks. 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. It reminded me of my college summers where I labored for many
hours with an arc welding torch repairing heavy equipment for a small
logging outfit. It reminded me of pleasant sweet smelling welding fumes.
That is the smell of space."