SPACE!
(Image: Constellation Cassiopeia)
It smells like a combination of hot metal, like welding a motorcycle, and fried steak according to Steve Pearce who is a chemist and the managing director of Omega Ingredients (a fragrance manufacturing company).
That’s a rad answer compared to what my 5th grade science teacher said it smelt like. When I asked him, his answer was, “nothing because it is nothing.” BAH!
Good’old NASA discovered Pearce via an art exhibit that was primarily based on the science of smell and one of his exhibits was the interior odour of the Mir Space Station. Upon being discovered, NASA asked Pearce to recreate the ’smell of space’ in his laboratory in order to assist new astronauts in prepping for the mission.
Pearce interviewed astronauts who had been in space and upon returning to their ship and disrobing they said their suits had particular smells on them described as metal and steak. Pearce has already created the odour of steak, but says that the hot metal is difficult because of the “high-energy vibration in the molecule.”
In his space chronicles, ISS Science Officer Don Pettit says,
The best description I can come up with is metallic; a rather pleasant sweet metallic sensation. It reminded me of my college summers where I labored for many hours with an arc welding torch repairing heavy equipment for a small logging outfit. It reminded me of pleasant sweet smelling welding fumes. That is the smell of space.
Special Note: Do not go into space if you are a vegetarian.
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