WEBVTT - What Is NASA's Odor Panel?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey,

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren Vulk bomb here, Every nutton bolt, every

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<v Speaker 1>plastic zip tie, every container of tang that's part of

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<v Speaker 1>a manned space mission has to be thoroughly checked out

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<v Speaker 1>before it gets blasted into the stars. It only makes sense, right,

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<v Speaker 1>Space is no place for surprises. Testing these things, all

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<v Speaker 1>of them, and how they'll act and react and potentially

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<v Speaker 1>hazardous environments falls on a veritable army of professionals at

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<v Speaker 1>NASA's White Sands Test facility in New Mexico. One group there,

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<v Speaker 1>the Materials Flight Acceptance Workforce, analyzes the space suitability of

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<v Speaker 1>different materials to make sure nothing will surprisingly catch on

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<v Speaker 1>fire or put off some toxic gas, or act strangely

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<v Speaker 1>in the near vacuum of space, or react poorly with

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<v Speaker 1>other materials on board. All this is done with a

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<v Speaker 1>never wavering eye on the safety of astronauts. And then

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<v Speaker 1>there's the testing area that's made the Materials Group a

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<v Speaker 1>sort of quirky star in the NASA Solar System, the

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<v Speaker 1>odor panel, what an astronaut smells in space, it turns out,

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<v Speaker 1>is mission critical too. We spoke with Susannah Harper, the

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<v Speaker 1>Materials Flight Accepted Standards testing manager at White Sands. She explained,

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<v Speaker 1>if you don't like the smell of fish down here

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<v Speaker 1>on the ground, you open a window and let it

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<v Speaker 1>air out. We don't have that option up in space.

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<v Speaker 1>The potentially smelly halibut or a farting co pilot is unpleasant,

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<v Speaker 1>but NASA is concerned with way more than simple stinkiness. Well.

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<v Speaker 1>After all, some smells, especially in the relatively tight quarters

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<v Speaker 1>of say the International Space Station or Oriyan, just can't

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<v Speaker 1>be helped. Harper said. We want to make sure we're

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<v Speaker 1>not creating an environment that's uncomfortable or bothersome to the

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<v Speaker 1>astronaut so they can be focused on their mission. But

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<v Speaker 1>beyond the comfort of astronauts, which is important, NASA wants

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<v Speaker 1>to keep unnecessary smells out of spacecraft for a more

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<v Speaker 1>practical reason. Too many unfamiliar odors in a tiny space

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<v Speaker 1>can mask odors that the astronauts need to detect, like

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<v Speaker 1>perhaps a pneumonia leak or the smell of something burning.

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<v Speaker 1>You can't have so many odors on board that the

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<v Speaker 1>astronauts missed the important stuff. Harper explained, our first line

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<v Speaker 1>of detection is our human sense of smell, so even

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<v Speaker 1>though we have worked with companies and there are certain

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<v Speaker 1>types of detectors on board, in the end, we know

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<v Speaker 1>that the human sense of smell is our most sensitive

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<v Speaker 1>detector for those hazardous smells. NASA, through the Materials Group,

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<v Speaker 1>has an odor panel that evaluates what can go up

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<v Speaker 1>into space and what's just two dar and stinky. Five

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<v Speaker 1>volunteers put their shnazes to everything in the astronauts habitable space.

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<v Speaker 1>The smell is captured first in an air chamber, then

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<v Speaker 1>the air is injected through syringe directly into masks that

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<v Speaker 1>each panel member wears. They then rank the smells zero

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<v Speaker 1>being the least offensive, up to four for get this

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<v Speaker 1>out of here. In order to determine what's allowable and

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<v Speaker 1>what should be grounded, another group first tests the materials

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<v Speaker 1>for toxicity. Any odor over two point five fails. The

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<v Speaker 1>panel's most decorated member is George Aldrich, a sixty four

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<v Speaker 1>year old chemical specialist who's been sniffing around NASA for

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<v Speaker 1>some forty six years. He's lent his proboscis to more

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<v Speaker 1>than nine different sit down smell tests, way more than

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<v Speaker 1>anyone else ever, which has earned him a bunch of nicknames,

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<v Speaker 1>including a nasal knot a few jaw dropping media appearances,

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<v Speaker 1>including one in which he made like a police dog

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<v Speaker 1>and seemingly impossibly sniffed out a mere smidget of drugs,

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<v Speaker 1>and the admiration of astronauts. He was once given the

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<v Speaker 1>Silver Snoopy Award, an honor bestowed for excellent and mission

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<v Speaker 1>important work. And yes, it's shaped like Snoopy wearing a

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<v Speaker 1>space suit. Though Aldrich has been doing this since he

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<v Speaker 1>was a teen, his is not some cushy seniority post.

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<v Speaker 1>He has to qualify for the panel every four months.

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<v Speaker 1>To do that, NASA puts Aldrich and the other volunteers

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<v Speaker 1>through what's known as a ten bottle test. They have

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<v Speaker 1>to identify seven smells and then point out the three

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<v Speaker 1>bottles that have no smell. Aldrich told us, as we age,

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<v Speaker 1>eyesight is not always the first thing to go. The

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<v Speaker 1>day I go up there and can't pass that ten

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<v Speaker 1>bottle test is the day they're going to retire me

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<v Speaker 1>from the Odor panel. The seven smells in the test

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<v Speaker 1>are what are often known as primary smells. Aldrich rattled

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<v Speaker 1>them off for us much more smoothly than I'm going

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<v Speaker 1>to be able to musky minty, floral etherist, camp voracious, pungent,

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<v Speaker 1>and putred. Aldrich does not, it should be pointed out,

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<v Speaker 1>to have a particularly prominent nose, a size he noted

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<v Speaker 1>don't matter. He's generally unbothered by allergies, which he credits

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<v Speaker 1>with helping his sense of smell, but he also constantly

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<v Speaker 1>tests himself, often following a smell through a hallway to

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<v Speaker 1>try to white deify it and its source. Harper said,

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<v Speaker 1>from my perspective, I also feel that he has developed

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<v Speaker 1>his sense of smell, much like a weightlifter develops his

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<v Speaker 1>muscles or a wine taster develops a sense of taste.

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<v Speaker 1>He does smell so many materials, and he focuses on

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<v Speaker 1>what those smells are like. I feel like he's been

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<v Speaker 1>working that like a muscle, and it's become more sensitive

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<v Speaker 1>over time. Aldrich was a member of the NASI fire

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<v Speaker 1>department at White Sands. When his boss told him about

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<v Speaker 1>the Odor Panel, he told us, I had no idea.

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<v Speaker 1>I just thought I was doing something great for the astronauts.

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<v Speaker 1>Since then, the Materials group has kept him busy, constantly

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<v Speaker 1>giving him and the other members of the Odor Panel

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<v Speaker 1>all sorts of materials to work with, including some truly

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<v Speaker 1>awful bits. He recalls the odor given off by undoing

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<v Speaker 1>a velcro strap as being particularly nasty. You'll get no

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<v Speaker 1>complaints from Aldrich, though, for a near half century he's

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<v Speaker 1>been proud to stick his nose in wherever he can,

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<v Speaker 1>all in the name of science. Today's episode was written

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<v Speaker 1>by John Donovan and produced by Tyler Clang. For more

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<v Speaker 1>on this and lots of other topics, visit how stuff

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<v Speaker 1>works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio.

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