2024-02-19 01:33:23
- A perfect vacuum does not exist in the universe. Therefore, when they return to the station, the astronauts smell gasoline, alcohol, urine, gunpowder, rotten eggs, pads and burnt almonds
A mixture of petrol fumes, alcohol, urine, gunpowder, burnt steak, rotten eggs, hot metal and pads, biscuits with burnt almonds – it all sounds so familiar here on Earth, but as surprising as it sounds, it is also part of the aromas in space.
Although there is no air in the vacuum of space, some astronauts report specific odors they detect when they take off their spacesuits and helmets and return to their spaceships.
“Space definitely has a smell that’s different from anything else.”
explains American Dominic Antonelli. Another NASA pilot, Don Pettit, wrote in a blog that he inhaled something similar to the sweet, sweet smell of welding smoke. He also compares it to metal. It reminded him of vacations in college when he torch-welded logging equipment for extra income.
And the participants in the Apollo mission report that the moon smells like gunpowder and burnt steak. That’s the prevailing impression, reports Harrison Schmidt, who stepped onto the surface of the Earth’s moon as part of Apollo 17 in 1972. This is confirmed by those who worked on the International Space Station.
But how is it actually possible for people to smell scents in space when you can’t breathe there?
If they take a deep breath, they will die. There are several explanations for this paradox. Actually, it’s not a perfect vacuum up there. “It’s not about space without any particles,” commented Miranda Nelson, who controls space flights at NASA’s Houston center, to Live Science magazine.
According to her, single atoms of oxygen float around the ship or outside the International Space Station. The Sun’s ultraviolet rays break down the molecules into individual atoms, and they get stuck on the spacesuits, instruments, or airlock. When the pilots return to the cockpit, a chemical reaction takes place. Single atoms can combine with an oxygen molecule to form ozone. Hence this fragrance, which is not typically cosmic.
Why astronauts talk about smells of gunpowder, gasoline and alcohol, read in the 1/2024 issue of “Kosmos” magazine.