You can get acclimated to the scent, but you should still stay away from the garbage and the bathroom.
Give it the name "space scent."
According to European astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, there is a pervasive "peculiar stench" on the International Space Station (ISS) that takes a few days to get acclimated to.
Cristoforetti shared on Monday on TikTok(opens in new tab): "When I arrived here a couple of months ago for my second flight, I could immediately smell a very peculiar odor that brought me back instantly to the memories and sensations of my first flight's odors" (July 25). But after a few days, I grew numb to the smell and can no longer detect it.
Cristoforetti didn't go into detail on the scent of the ISS, but she did mention that it has powerful filters that can get rid of the majority of odors. (Cristoforetti completed her first spacewalk on July 21, days prior to the publication of the film.)
Other astronauts have reported that the atmosphere in space smells like ozone or gunpowder, in part because it is thought that atomic oxygen adheres to spacesuits in a vacuum.
Additionally, Cristoforetti listed the stinky areas of the space station that prospective ISS guests should stay away from. The Expedition 67 crew of the orbiting lab loaded a Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo with tons of garbage in June as it prepared to leave the ISS and make a violent re-entry. Of the garbage-filled ship, she observed, "of course it can be nasty."
The toilet on the space station is also giving out other unpleasant smells. Although the toilet is made to turn waste urine into drinking water, there will always be some leftover. The mechanism evaporates any remaining pee, but Cristoforetti noted the exhaust might still smell "in spite of this huge filter."
However, the astronaut from the European Space Agency told her 600,000 TikTok fans that, other from these problematic locations, the ISS is devoid of dreadful scents. The space station smells pretty good, she added, except from that.
