What does the space smell like? It has a … strange smell. According to NASA astronauts to “a mixture of gunpowder, charred steak, raspberries and rum.” It is Eau de Space , a new perfume designed by the American space agency and that offers us the opportunity, from Earth, to be able to experience this fragrant experience of space.
The perfume was initially created several years ago by NASA itself, which developed the scent of space in preparation for astronauts before going into orbit, with the idea that no surprise, including a strange smell, could distract them from the mission. Now, years later, a team of experts has collected that scent and presented a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, with the aim of bringing the perfume to the general public.
Eau De Space has been developed by Steve Pearce, a chemist and founder of Omega Ingredients (a company focused on “creating flavors and natural ingredients of the highest quality, aimed at the source for the industry of food and beverages), who partnered with expert perfumers to bottle the scent of space and that it was, initially, who was commissioned by NASA to develop this particular perfume in 2008. The unusual perfume will be on sale soon, as its financing is assured given the results of the first days of the campaign on Kickstarter.
Regarding its smell, “the best description I can think of is metallic; quite a nice sweet metallic feel, “wrote former International Space Station (ISS) officer Don Pettit in a 2003 post.” It’s not that weird. Other scents have been observed in the cosmos, including moondust as “spent gunpowder” and a dust cloud smelling of “raspberry and rum.” The last “smell” was inferred by the presence of ethyl formate (C3H6O2) near the center of our galaxy, a flavoring found precisely in raspberries and rum.
And it is that to create this space perfume, Pearce used the notes of the astronauts that described the smell of outer space with similarities to ozone, hot metal or a fried steak. Then he used his knowledge of flavor chemistry to produce combinations that matched those descriptions until he came up with something satisfying.
The main objective of the company with this new Eau de Space perfume is to increase the interest in learning STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) for students through what Matt Richmond, director of product of the company, called “experimental education.” He hopes that Eau de Space will promote debate among parents, teachers and scientists in order to encourage more young people to study science-technology careers.
On the other hand, Richmond also revealed that they are looking to launch a fragrance called Smell of the Moon (Smell of the Moon) based on experiences similar to those of Eau de Space.
At the moment, in the Kickstarter campaign, Eau de Space states that “now we need your help to mass-manufacture it so that everyone can experience the smell of space for themselves.” And for the moment, everything is going smoothly. The goal is to reach 1,748 euros before August 17, 2020 and they already have more than 150,000 euros and with many weeks ahead to break the sponsorship record.
