Outer Space has a Smell 274
repapetilto writes "ISS Science Officer Don Pettit reports in his journal that outer space gives off a smell best described as "a rather pleasant sweet metallic sensation." Kind of odd considering smell is supposed to be due to volatilized chemical compounds."
outgassing of materials (Score:4, Insightful)
Huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Sounds Like Ozone (Score:5, Insightful)
perhaps the smell is coming from all the ionized molecules on their suits and gear.
Also, the space station is not entirely out of the atmosphere, is it? Isn't the top layer a lot of ionized gas as well - due to the same radiation sources?
It would be interesting to compare the molecules per cubic meter in the ISS airlock with the number of molecules per cubic meter a human nose can detect..
I hope he does continue to research this curiosity!
Propellants from Shuttle and Soyuz? (Score:2, Insightful)
Come on... (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone else said this wasn't "worthy" of Slashdot. Maybe that's true but it doesn't make it stupid. It's just one of those millions of things that doesn't require enormous analysis. Blame whoever submitted it and gave it the headline.
Re:Implied Lisa? (Score:3, Insightful)
Diff between pilots and scientists (Score:5, Insightful)
After over 40 years in space this is the first guy to bring this up?? Hm... Smells fishy if you ask me..
Reminds me of an anecdote from one the Apollo 17 astronauts: He noticed that moon dust smelled and wondered why no one had mentioned it before. Eventually he realized it was a cultural thing: In pilot culture, "out of the ordinary" can get you grounded, where "out of the ordinary" is what science culture is all about. And the early Apollo astronauts were all pilots, mostly test pilots.
It only takes one curious person to open a new door and most of us don't notice the door is there, even if we pass it by every day of our lives.
Re:Implied Lisa? (Score:3, Insightful)