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The Smell of Space

Posted by Eric at 7:23 PM


According to Anousheh Ansari, the first female space tourist, space smells "...a bit like burnt cookies."

Peggy Whitson, former resident of the International Space Station, describes space as having "...almost a bitter kind of smell in addition to being smoky and burned."

And why wouldn't it? It makes perfect sense! But then who would ever have thought that the vacuum of space would have an odor at all? Kind of makes you wonder... Does Space have a flavor as well?

What might a chilled bowl of dark matter with a creamy dollop of nebulae taste like? But then, that's not space, is it? Why wouldn't matter leave a taste in one's mouth? So what does the cold vacuum of space taste like? Perhaps one day I'll find out.

 

6 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...
    December 19, 2006 at 8:24 PM  
    Do you think we might be going up to meet Him? Wouldn't surprise me. I will be able to sing then (I can't now) and enjoy the praise choir.
    Anonymous said...
    December 19, 2006 at 8:33 PM  
    Won't that be wonderful? I'd say 'I can't wait' but then I don't have much choice or say in the matter, right?

    : )
    Anonymous said...
    December 20, 2006 at 8:34 AM  
    Help me understand. How can anyone "smell" space? I don't see how anyone could smell anything but oxygen while inside a space suit or inside a orbiting vehicle. If she took her helmet off while out in the vacuum for the purposes of "smelling" space. she would immediately die.
    Anonymous said...
    December 20, 2006 at 9:08 AM  
    After docking with the ISS-- pressures are equalized and hatches opened --the fragrance of vacuum can be smelled. Also, after taking off one's suit after a spacewalk the odor of space clings for a time to the suit, much like the smell of cigarettes clinging to ones clothes.
    Anonymous said...
    December 21, 2006 at 12:06 PM  
    I say it has a metallic taste...

    Umm...seriously, though...Ms. Ansari must could only have been smelling her own inner-self as the vacuum would have been tugging on the structure of her own cells...right?

    BTW...from the X-Prize to a ride to space on a Russian rocket? I guess she just couldn't wait for Rutan and the boys, eh?
    Anonymous said...
    December 23, 2006 at 6:08 PM  
    Nahhh, not buying it. Unless she opened a port and stuck her head out for a sniff, all she was smelling was the inside of the station. Because Space smells like Chocolate. Trust me!

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