posted 10-16-2008 08:18 PM               

Outer space smells like fried steak, hot metal and welding a motorbike, according to NASA scientists.

NASA has commissioned Steven Pearce, a chemist and managing director of fragrance manufacturing company Omega Ingredients, to recreate the smell of space in a laboratory.

His research will be used to help astronauts prepare for the conditions they will encounter in space.

Mr Pearce began working for NASA in August [2008] and hopes to have recreated the smell of space by the end of the year.

posted 7-25-2012 10:11 AM               

Without a strong sample size of folks who have undergone a space walk, they've found it rather tough to pinpoint the smell, with some former astronauts having called the odor akin to "seared steak," "hot metal," "welding fumes" or even "gunpowder." Now, NASA has enlisted the help of London chemist Steve Pearce — pro bono, mind you — to recreate the smell, hoping it will help in training exercises.

...mixing anecdotal discoveries together — Pearce says that seared steak and hot metal actually fall in line with each other and "lead us to conclude that the sensation is caused by some high-energy vibrations in particles brought back inside which mix with the air" — with the recent discovery of ethyl formate in space's dust particles (that's the same matter that gives raspberries their flavor), and there's a strong starting point for recreating the possibly sulfurous-like smell of space.

posted 11-10-2013 07:18 AM               

Have any other astronauts reported or commented on this?

posted 08-25-2014 03:55 PM               

The moon has a distinctive smell. Ask any Apollo moonwalker about the odiferous nature of the lunar dirt and you'll get the same answer.

With NASA's six Apollo lunar landing missions between 1969 and the end of 1972, a total of 12 astronauts kicked up the powdery dirt of the moon, becoming an elite group later to be tagged as the "dusty dozen."

posted 09-01-2014 01:08 AM               

Ethanol has a "mild" odor when the concentration is high, as in a liquor or wine that has not been consumed. When ethanol on the breath of a human is observed, the ethanol is of insufficient concentration to be detected, so what is detected is not the ethanol, but the other compounds on the breath. These were either present in the drink when consumed, or were manufactured by the human body as part of the process of metabolizing the drink and meal.

Alcohol is actually odorless.... it has no smell. What people perceive as alcohol on the breath is actually the odor of things commonly found in alcoholic beverages. The breath of a person who drinks a non-alcoholic beer will smell the same as that of a person who has consumed an alcoholic beer.

posted 09-01-2014 11:44 AM               

As a PhD organic chemist who works with people with acute sensory skills (flavorists and perfumers), I agree with the lawyers opening sentence, but disagree with the sociologist Hanson that "alcohol is odorless." Ultimately both should get their facts from chemists and biochemists who work with the neat and diluted chemical.

posted 10-27-2014 04:12 PM               

The odour is apparently reminiscent of rotten eggs, horse urine, formaldehyde, bitter almonds, alcohol, vinegar and a hint of sweet ether.

That's what the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet stinks of anyway, we’re not sure about the others.

posted 06-24-2016 10:12 AM               

Colin Snodgrass is unwrapping a series of nested plastic bags with the care you would normally reserve for bomb disposal. With the first layer off, I already understand why, as a sharp, unpleasant scent invades my nostrils.

I’m getting my first whiff of eau de comète, a perfume crafted to mimic the aroma of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as sniffed by the European Space Agency’s Philae lander, which touched down on the comet’s surface in 2014. It really is like nothing I’ve ever smelled.

The dense pong was created by scent firm The Aroma Company at the request of Snodgrass, a researcher at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, and other members of the Rosetta mission team. They will be handing out samples at the Royal Society summer exhibition in London next month. “We have a bunch of postcards impregnated with this,” he says.

posted 07-28-2017 07:43 AM               

During my previous flight, I had three spacewalks. When you are getting out of the airlock it still remains in vacuum anywhere from six to eight hours. When we pressurize it back when we come back, it is not 100 percent pressurization.

I'm a small guy and I was supposed to get out of my spacesuit and help my commander get out of his spacesuit — he is a bigger guy. There I had this very unique opportunity to check what space smells like. It smells like welding. This is a very ozone, metallic, very distinctive smell.

On the American segment, the same thing after an EVA, when they open the hatch and we repressurize there is a very strong smell. And I smelled it and it was immediate that I knew what it was.

I asked another crew member before I said anything to see what they said. And Nicole Stott said the exact same thing, what space smelled like on the American segment, or the USOS segment: it smells like cream of mushroom soup.

posted 04-24-2018 10:16 AM               

“It adds another piece of information about the planets and how they form,” study author Patrick Irwin from the University of Oxford told Gizmodo. “Uranus and Neptune formed in a colder part of the solar nebula,” the early stage of our solar system when it was just our young sun and lots of dust, “than Jupiter and Saturn.”

Scientists have long assumed that cloud tops near the giant green planet’s surface contained hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, but that hypothesis has been based on inference rather than direct observations. Scientists figured these molecules were there based on an unexplained absence of certain wavelengths of light. It’s like guessing something’s identity based on a warped version of the shadow it casts without really looking at it.

The team peered deep into Uranus’s atmosphere, at and below the part we might call its “surface,” using the Gemini-North’s Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrometer in Hawaii. They report that they’ve directly detected the molecule at around 0.4-0.8 parts per million as ice in its cloud tops. They measured more hydrogen sulfide than ammonia, and also the exact concentration of hydrogen sulfide required to produce a rotten-egg fart smell. They published their paper today in Nature Astronomy.

posted 04-01-2019 12:00 AM               

Deep space is not for the faint of heart, and neither is this bold, new fragrance for the people of Earth. Humans have always dreamt of exploring our universe and today we make part of that dream a reality. Created by the engineers at Lockheed Martin, this out-of-this-world scent blends metallic notes to create a clean scent with a sterile feel, balanced by subtle, fiery undertones that burn off like vapor in the atmosphere.

No one is better suited to develop the preferred fragrance for tomorrow's explorers. We've seen, touched and for the first time ever, we can smell space. Our engineers worked with Tony Antonelli, former Astronaut and Space Shuttle pilot, who is now on the Orion program at Lockheed Martin, to create a scent that transcends our planet and brings the essence of space down to Earth.

Lockheed Martin is synonymous with space - a vital, visionary leader in the industry. We know space better than anyone, and that's why we're the first company to bottle the "smell of space." We have leveraged our rich history of exploration, and our dedication to share what we have learned, to help make everyone who wears this fragrance feel like an astronaut. We are proud to bring you Vector. It's the smell of space.

Register for an opportunity to be selected to receive a limited-edition sample of Vector: The Smell of Space!

posted 04-04-2019 12:15 PM               

Behind the scent: Lockheed Martin bottles astronaut's smell of space

Lockheed Martin's April Fools' Day joke passed the smell test.

The aerospace company on Monday (April 1) kicked off its prank by announcing a launch, but rather than it being of a rocket or a spacecraft, it was Vector, "the first ever fragrance to capture the aroma of space." And no sooner did the liftoff occur, than thousands of people came to Lockheed Martin's website to request a sample.

One might expect that to be the gag, but the company went a step further, not only creating a spot-on ad for the bottled essence of space, but also producing the scent for real, as in actual vials of the unisex (if not also universal) eau de (zero-g) toilette.

"We started thinking about the rollout of this campaign," said Alex Walker, the marketing lead for Lockheed Martin's space division, "and how much more engaging it would be to have an actual, physical fragrance sample to offer, right?"

posted 06-29-2020 08:48 PM               

The fragrance was developed by Steve Pearce, according to Eau de Space product manager Matt Richmond. Pearce is a chemist and the founder of Omega Ingredients, a company focused on the "creation of the highest quality, provenance driven, natural flavours and ingredients for the food and beverage industry," its website says.

Pearce was originally contracted by NASA to recreate the smell in 2008, and it took him approximately four years to develop it, Richmond said.

It was created to help astronauts train before launching in orbit, and it was part of NASA's goal of eliminating any potential surprises astronauts might encounter or experience in space, according to the Kickstarter.

posted 07-15-2020 09:25 AM               

'Smell of space' bottler sets sights on the moon, plans 'Eau de Luna'

If you like the smell of space, wait until you get a whiff of the moon.

That is the proposition now awaiting launch for the thousands of people who have already backed "Eau de Space," a crowdfunded fragrance that is styled after the distinct scent astronauts have smelled after re-entering their spacecraft from spacewalks. Having quickly rocketed to almost half a million dollars on Kickstarter, the campaign is now ready to shoot for the moon.

The team behind Eau de Space is set to bottle "Eau de Luna" — the smell of the moon.

posted 08-12-2020 12:35 PM               

In order to reproduce that smell, Moisseeff chose to detonate black powder in his own saucepans. After several failed attempts -- and a couple of scares -- he finally succeeded in "capturing" a burnt deposit.

Then, once he had worked out what kind of smell he was looking for, this modern day alchemist set to work finding the right notes to complete the scent.

A blend of metallic, carbon and sulphur notes combined to titillate the nostrils and the imagination.

"This enigmatic smell reproduced from the descriptions of various astronauts evokes scents that we know like gunpowder and chimney ash, but that doesn't mean that we wouldn't find it on the moon", says Xavier Penot, scientific mediator at the Cite de l'Espace in Toulouse and the man behind the idea.

posted 09-02-2020 05:25 PM               

We did it! Over 31,200% to our original funding goal, $614,377 pledged, 12,995 backers (most new to Kickstarter!), and all in 60 days! Stellar!

We will release both fragrances, The Smell of the Moon and The Smell of Space, due to overwhelming demand. We set up a follow-on Indiegogo page to allow you to order if you missed the project.

Production Timeline

October 8 - Fragrance is shipped to our bottler directly. QC Bottles (Drop Test, breakage, durability testing, drop test in packaging), packaging, seals, and atomizer. Affix labels, Hand Package bottle, randomized Lot Spot-Check again, package for shipping, labeling, sort by shipping carrier/geo, transfer to fulfillment partner.

October 20 - Customer order fulfillment begins, Orders out the door and on the way to you.