What do steak, cookies, raspberries, and rum have in common? According to the people who have been into space, this is how the vacuum that surrounds us smells. Well, they didn’t actually smell space; they’d be dead if they had inhaled those odors. Yet, indirectly, the atmosphere’s aroma can be described, and many astronauts agree that it simply “stinks.” It has a scent of gunpowder and it feels quite “sulfurous,” states three-time spacewalker Thomas Jones.
Few people have smelled the outer space, leaving us, Earthlings, wondering what “space smells like?” A decade ago, in 2008, NASA had tried to answer this question by asking chemist Steve Pearce to reproduce it. Together, they looked at the chances of bringing this smell here, on Earth. Their efforts did not materialize back then, but that did not stop Pearce from working on a NASA-commissioned vacuum water, which followed the recipe provided by astronauts.
American chemical engineer and a NASA astronaut, Don Pettit describes the space’s smell as something that is “not the olfactory equivalent to describing the palette sensations of some new food as ‘tastes like chicken.’ 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.”
Even after 12 years, NASA did not give up on this project, so it recruited Pearce again to help it make a space-inspired perfume. While working on the fragrance, the CEO of Omega Ingredients Ltd reported he relied on the information provided by astronauts, who said that “the ozone smells bitter, smoky and even like fried steak, rum, and raspberries.” Fortunately, now you don’t have to imagine how these things, combined, smell. Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign, everyone can sniff outer space.
Organized by Matt Richmond, the campaign comprises of “Eau de Space,” a bottle of fragrance that accurately replicates the galaxy’s smell. The perfume was created to prepare astronauts for their next mission, eliminating any surprises they might experience while adventuring outside the Earth. Aside from preparing the astronauts, the perfume doubles as a perfect tool to support scientific education: “Our team consists of top Fashion, Tech, Design, and Logistics experience — all with a desire to increase STEM through experiential education. ‘Eau de Space’ is our first product launch under this important initiative, and we hope there will be many more,” the Kickstarter campaign reads.
For each bottle of “Eau de Space” bought, another one goes to a K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) program. People have pledged over $400,000 by now to bring the NASA-developed fragrance to Earth’s curious humans. The donation packages start at $15 and go up to $3,480.
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