太空也有味道:烤牛排与焊接金属的混合气味
充满神秘的外太空是否也有它独特的味道呢？来自美国宇航局的科学家给出了答案。
科学家们称，外太空的气味非常特殊，闻起来既像是烤牛排的味道，也有一股金属被加热时或焊接摩托车时产生的味道。
美国宇航局(NASA)已经委托化学家史蒂芬·皮尔斯在实验中模拟出这种气味。皮尔斯表示，他参与了今年七月举办的一场以气味为主题的艺术展。其中一项展品就是由他制造的俄罗斯“和平号”空间站内部的气味。美国宇航局听说此事后专程找到皮尔斯，并委以他制造太空气味的重任。
皮尔斯说，“我们已经掌握了一些关于太空气味的线索。通过采访航天员我们得知，当他们结束太空行走返回空间站，脱下宇航服并摘下头盔时，他们都闻到了一股非常特别的味道。”“那味道闻起来像烤牛排，或是金属被加热时散发的气味，甚至有点像焊接摩托车时产生的气味。”
皮尔斯今年八月已经着手此项研究工作，计划2009年底前制造出太空的味道。皮尔斯说，他领导的团队已经制造出烤牛排的味道。但是制造金属加热时散发的气味还有些难度。他们认为那可能是一种由分子内部的高能运动产生的气味。
美国宇航局希望成功制造出太空的气味，从而营造出一个更加真实的太空模拟环境，帮助宇航员在地面进行训练，以更好地处理太空中遇到的各种情况。
Outer space smells like fried steak, hot metal and welding a motorbike, scientists said today.
Nasa has commissioned Steven Pearce, a chemist and managing director of fragrance manufacturing company Omega Ingredients, to recreate the smell of space in a laboratory.
His research will be used to help astronauts prepare for the conditions they will encounter in space.
The smell of space: Apparently a mixture of steak and hot metal... Just don't take your helmet off for dinner
Mr Pearce began working for Nasa in August and hopes to have recreated the smell of space by the end of the year.
He said: 'I did some work for an art exhibition in July, which was based entirely on smell and one of the things I created was the smell of the inside of the Mir space station.
'Nasa heard about it and contacted me to see if I could help them recreate the smell of space to help their astronauts.
'We have a few clues as to what space smells like. First of all, there were interviews with astronauts that we were given, when they had been outside and then returned to the space station and were de-suiting and taking off their helmets, they all reported quite particular odours.
Astronauts reported the distinctive smells when taking off their helmets following space-walks'For them, what comes across is a smell of fried steak, hot metal and even welding a motorbike,' one of them said.
'The suggestion to us has been that it's about creating realism for their training, so they train the astronauts in their suits by putting them in big water tanks to simulate the loss of gravity and so it's just about making sure the whole thing is a realistic training exercise.
'We have already produced the smell of fried steak, but hot metal is proving more difficult. We think it's a high energy vibration in the molecule and that's what we're trying to add to it now.'
Mr Pearce visited Moorside High School in Manchester today to discuss the project, as part of the Manchester Science Festival.