Thursday, February 21, 2008

Space "Smells"

Cory Doctorow's Boing Boing blog is always a fount of odd information. I guess thats why I have my reader pointed there so often. So, I saw this piece written by astronaut Don Petit who is expedition six ISS science officer. Don writing on a NASA blog, offered up some strange information. Space it seems, has a "smell".

Few people have experienced traveling into space. Even fewer have experienced the smell of space. It seems about as improbable as listening to sounds in space, yet space has a definite smell. 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 a peculiar odor tickled my olfactory senses. I noticed that this smell was on their suit, helmet, gloves, and tools. It was more pronounced on fabrics. The best description I can come up with is metallic. It reminded me of...an arc welding torch repairing heavy equipment....welding fumes.

Weird huh? Click here for Mr. Petit's complete article

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