i read in the back of Harper's, the space where each month they have "facts", odd little tid-bits from the around the world. it's often sort of highly sexualized. stuff like the nocturnal mating habits of deermice, and the uterine cavities of sharks.
i love it.
but i don't think about them too much. they sort of drift in and out through the shutters in my mind.
(the size of a hominid's testicles relative to its brain.)
however, the other day one little Fact grabbed my mind.
they now know what space smells like.
what!?!
NASA says that, "for [astronauts], what comes across is a smell of fried steak, hot metal, and even welding a motorbike."
wait...those are all...HOT things. what's that all about? space seems...so cool.
icy even. i had imagined space to smell like talcum powder, that's been in the freezer, in a metal bowl. or like those alcohol-soaked cleaning wipes that come in a wide plastic jug. cleeean.
how do they figure that out? how do they sniff space? how can anything have a smell that has no surrounding air to disperse its molecules through?
i pictured a little robot. he sticks his little robot arm out, and opens a little metal ball where his hand ought to be. tzzzzzh!
instead of collecting a soil sample, he leaves his little hand open long to fill up with space air, and (*snaps*!) it closed again.
later, he opens his tiny fist, to a couple of waiting scientists. the astro-scientists sniff...freezer burned broccoli? no, no, no, wait. a frozen marshmallow? no. no. fried steak. mmmm.
i take back all those bad things i ever said about space. i think i'd like it there...
p.s. my suppositions about how people sniff space? all wrong. read away, following le link, and tell me what you previously thought space would feel like. hmmm?
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