Without this man's nose, NASA is unlikely to be able to resume shuttle flights. He's been with the agency for 30 years, and all that time he's been sniffing what's supposed to end up on the space shuttle. He was nicknamed “Nostril-damus” and even “nosonaut”, because the “super-sniffer” has more than 770 “odorous missions”.
The “chief drug addict” is not offended by jokes and, upon introducing himself, says: “My name is George Aldrich, and I have a stinking job.” While others mock his unusual profession, Aldrich believes in its value: "I wouldn't do it if I didn't think it was really important."
In space, odors change, and astronauts have no way to open a window and ventilate the room: “Exposure to unpleasant odors can make people sick,” explains NASA’s chief sniffer. — Ask the Russians. They had to abort the mission in 1976 due to the foul stench.”
The crew of Soyuz-21, Boris Volynov and Vitaly Zholobov, actually had problems with smell. But the mission had to be curtailed not because of the stench - they endured it for more than a month, suspecting that either leaking toxic fuel fumes or interior upholstery materials were to blame.
And the early termination of the flight was caused by an unexpected equipment failure. So let’s leave this “inconsistency” on the conscience of “Nostril-damus”.
Further. It should be said that since childhood, Aldrich did not dream of his current profession and did not strive for fame as a “master of smell.” When he was 18 years old, he began working in the fire department. And then suddenly the aerospace agency announced a recruitment of volunteers for the “aroma” department.
The photo on the left was taken in 2001, on the right - in 2003. As you can see, there are few differences. And this is how Aldrich has been working for more than 30 years (photo from the sites primidi.com and spaceflight.nasa.gov).
Among the main requirements for candidates were the absence of any allergies or breathing problems. Aldrich passed and has never failed since then the so-called “10-bottle test,” seven of which smell like something and three of which don’t.
The test subject must identify the following odors: musky, floral, ethereal, camphorous, minty, pungent and putrefactive. Thus, every 4 months the agency calibrates and tests the noses of its sniffers, and together with Aldrich there are only five of them at NASA.
This team's job is to smell almost everything that astronauts encounter during flight, including tissues, toothpaste, circuit boards, cosmetics and even ink.
However, some objects that do not emit any odor on Earth can easily become sources of toxic gases in space. Therefore, first all items are tested for toxicity.
They are sealed in containers, and then, to speed up the process, they are placed in an oven heated to 49 degrees Celsius for three days. It is then determined whether the gases are poisonous or carcinogenic, and if they are safe, the items are subjected to a smell test.
Aldrich and his colleagues rate odors on a scale of zero to four: unnoticeable is 0, then barely or easily detectable, unwanted, and finally 4 is aggressive or offensive. Aldrich nicknamed the fourth level "get-me-out-of-here".
For example, the analysis of some kind of stopper that NASA hoped to use on board the shuttle looks like this from the outside: a chemist uses a syringe to draw air out of a chamber with a stopper, and then “shoots” this air into the mask on his face. And he sniffs.
If the score of an item is higher than 2.4 points, it will definitely not fly into space. Thus, the film, markers and mascara that the first American astronaut, Sally Ride, wanted to take on board the ship were rejected.
Of course, NASA could use dogs or "electronic noses" for such tests, but the agency is more willing to use "human" sniffers because astronauts are people too, and no electronics or animal can accurately identify odors that will "offend" members crew.
The Discovery shuttle is due to launch in May, so NASA's best nose has more than enough work (photo ABC News).
In addition to working for the Nozdrya-damus agency, he was a judge four times at the humorous national competitions “Smell Eaters” (
From time to time they sent a car to pick her up, which was rare in those years. She dressed up, importantly and mysteriously told us that she was “invited for an examination,” and left. Grandma chuckled and once said: “Connie has a very sensitive nose, and she is invited to be an expert. - Then, catching herself, she added: “But don’t tell anyone, and if they ask where she works, say: at the perfume factory...”
At that time, for some reason, a lot of things were secret. Then, when I grew up, I realized: Aunt Connie worked as a “sniffer.” I don’t know if you have heard of such professions. This is the name given to people who have a very acute sense of smell. Grandmother said that this was a rare gift that needed to be protected, and she passed everything on to her sister. My aunt also took great care of her nose: she was afraid of drafts, and when something burned in her neighbors’ communal kitchen, she went to bed and put a cold compress on her forehead. She said she had a headache.
I myself had a nose as a child - bless you, how sensitive it is. They’ll bring sausage from the store (this happened rarely, though), so I can smell it before our dog Nelka...
The aunt’s profession was not just rare, but unique. She did not work at the factory, but in difficult cases she went for examination. The fact is that it is good if there is one person who can distinguish between several thousand odors and several million.
Profession: sniffer
Today, much more professional “sniffers” (not scent geniuses, but simply people with a very keen sense of smell) are needed than before. We live in a world of synthetics, and all synthetics smell. Many people cannot stand certain smells. And therefore, even in factories that produce products that seem to have nothing to do with odors, there are specialist “sniffers”.
I recently read an article that talks about the Renault automobile plant. So they have a whole team, about eight people, of smell experts. Will release an experimental workshop new car. It’s good for everyone, but here’s the latest examination: eight “noses” (as they call “sniffers” in France) in white coats begin to sniff it... And their conclusion, for example: “This seat upholstery gives off a not very pleasant smell” or “There’s a smell coming from the gearbox.” the smell of oil,” unconditionally. An excellent prototype with an excellent chassis, engine and body is sent for revision.
Just imagine submarine. There's also more than enough plastic there. But if the interior of a car can be ventilated, then for a submarine that has gone on a long voyage, this is a problem.
Or an example very close to us: tap water. They take it from the rivers and first of all send it to the water treatment laboratory at the water station. This is understandable - they don’t dump things into our rivers... At the same time, they either don’t want to clean up a lot of things, they say, they’re expensive, unprofitable, maybe they won’t notice, or (this is really bad) they can’t clean them up. Therefore, it is clear that the profession of a “water sniffer-expert” is very important at waterworks. Can you imagine what kind of sense of smell he must have? Come on, try to smell the stream from the tap yourself: water and water - what does it smell like?
In general, “sniffers” are different. They usually specialize in one industry. There are experts in technical odors, there are “sniffers”-confectioners, there are specialists who have a keen sense of odors. good wines, cheeses, sausages... Some people with a keen sense of smell specialize in the aromas of medicinal plants, and “sniffers”-perfumers create perfumes...
George Aldrich - astronaut bodyguard
And now another example unusual profession. What is NASA, you know - National Aeronautics and Space Administration. They launch satellites and space shuttles - Shuttles. Among the mass of “eggheads” (that is, highly learned) employees are five “sniffers”. They sniff everything that should fly into space with the astronaut crews.
One of the reasons for the emergence of this profession was the not very successful flight of the Soviet crew of Boris Volynov and Vitaly Zholobov on the Soyuz-21 spacecraft in 1976. Some time after the normal launch into orbit, the spacecraft commander reported that a foreign smell had appeared in the cabin. At first, no attention was paid to the annoying obstacle, and our cosmonauts spent more than a month in an atmosphere of increasing stench, either due to fuel vapors leaking somewhere, or because of the odors of the plastic lining... An unexpected equipment failure forced the program to be curtailed, and the crew returned to the ground. But even if there had been no emergency, the flight would still have had to be stopped due to the smell. In space you can’t open a window for ventilation...
One of NASA’s “sniffers” named George Aldrich spoke about his amazing profession. He received it quite unexpectedly. 18-year-old George served in the fire department, not even suspecting that he had a unique “nose.” Following an advertisement for volunteers in NASA’s “aroma” department, he applied and took part in control testing. To his surprise, he passed the medical examination and all the tests.
Aldrich correctly identified the bottles containing the odoriferous substance (he was offered ten bottles, of which three were containing clean water). I distinguished and identified seven main aromas from the proposed bouquet - musky, floral, ethereal, camphorous, minty, pungent and putrefactive.
George was put to work. Since then, over three decades, he has participated in more than seven hundred launch preparations. And every four months he and his colleagues undergo strict smell tests. Good specialist smells must have not only a unique sense of smell, but also good associative and operational memory, as well as... imagination.
Together with other “sniffers”, he “sniffs” absolutely everything at the stand, from circuit boards to astronauts’ clothing and pen paste. The fact is that some objects that have no odor in the Earth’s atmosphere suddenly become sources of gases in space and smell...
“Sniffers” rate odors on a scale from 0 - unnoticeable, then barely or easily detectable - this is 2, then comes unwanted - 3 and, finally, 4 - aggressive. If the score is higher than two and a half points, the odorous item is removed from the room without further discussion. spaceship. All the personal belongings of the astronauts are also checked (for example, one of the first female astronauts, Sally Ride, was confiscated by the sniffers... her mascara was too scented). And in preparation for other flights, aftershave lotion, a small album with home photographs, and even someone’s laptop (a portable baby IBM computer) were rejected...
“I feel like I’m the astronaut’s bodyguard,” says Aldrich, “even though I just have a really good nose.”
on his business card a shuttle and a skunk are depicted side by side and there is an inscription in small letters: “If something smells in the space program, I have to smell it.”
Odorology
Remember how Sherlock Holmes investigated crime scenes? He examined them carefully, collected evidence, and sometimes even sniffed them, that is, he was engaged in odoology. This is the name of the branch of criminology, the task of which is to establish the identity of the criminal by the smell he left behind.
Forensic science is quite a complex matter. Firstly, as we have already seen, the smell is a very subtle substance, and it is difficult to catch it. Secondly, swindlers and swindlers are not fools either. Having committed a crime, they try their best to cover up any traces. But, as you remember, each person has his own individual smell. And today a laboratory installation has already been created to identify (that is, identify or determine the match) the found odor with the odor of a suspected person. By its invisible residues on clothes or on the floor, even after washing or thorough cleaning, you can find material evidence, and from it you can determine the true criminal. Odor traces last a long time.
It would seem that by the nature of their service, cosmonauts and astronauts should be materialists. However, many of them are very superstitious and perform mysterious rituals before flying...
BLACK DAY OF THE CALENDAR
Judging by the number of rituals and superstitions, we can come to the conclusion that Russian cosmonauts are much more superstitious than their American colleagues. The Americans came up with an interesting explanation for this phenomenon: the safety of space flights in Russia and the United States is not comparable.
In the USSR, according to official data, four cosmonauts died in half a century, and the latest tragedy happened more than four decades ago. Losses among astronauts are at least four times higher - 17. Such flight safety is well worth freaking out, taking all sorts of strange measures, which our cosmonauts regularly do.
So, for example, October 24 is a black page in the calendar of Soviet-Russian cosmonautics. This is the only day of the year when it is strictly forbidden to carry out any launches. Fate chose October 24 for tragedies not once, but twice. It was on this day in 1960 and 1963 that Soviet missiles exploded. The explosions killed 92 and 7 people, respectively.
Baikonur also has its own traditions. The most famous is to place coins on the rails along which the rocket is transported to the site. Cosmonauts do not take part in this ritual because it is believed to bring bad luck to them.
Instead of crushing coins, they visit the hairdresser. In addition to the haircut, a blessing from the priest is also required. The priest blesses not only the astronauts, but also the rocket at the launch site.
REAR RIGHT WHEEL
Both cosmonauts and astronauts act on the principle: why change something if everything went well. Therefore, many of the most ordinary and routine events that occur on the day of a successful launch become traditions and rituals. It is not surprising that Yuri Gagarin became the “author” of many traditions in Soviet-Russian cosmonautics.
The strangest tradition attributed to the first cosmonaut is... the delivery of minor necessities to the wheels of the bus on which the cosmonauts travel to the cosmodrome in Baikonur. The dubious honor was given, however, not to everyone, but only to the rear right wheel, allegedly chosen by Yuri Alekseevich on April 12, 1961.
By the way, there is no doubt about the expediency or logic of the actions of the first cosmonaut, because half a century ago spacesuits were not yet as convenient and comfortable as they are now. So the desire to satisfy an urgent need in advance, if Yuri Gagarin really did this before flying on the Vostok-1 spacecraft, can be considered a completely reasonable precaution.
There is no serious evidence of this fact, but this has not prevented astronauts from peeing on the rear right wheel for more than half a century, although nowadays they can easily do the same in space thanks to comfortable suits in which every detail is thought out.
Foreign cosmonauts launching from Baikonur on Russian rockets, and, naturally, ladies are exempt from this ritual. However, they say that female astronauts often take a bottle of urine with them in order to also observe the tradition.
EARTH IN THE PORTHOLE
The remaining traditions of Soviet-Russian cosmonautics are not so strange and often have a more or less reasonable explanation. For example, before the flight, cosmonauts must visit Red Square and pay tribute to the memory of Yuri Gagarin, Sergei Korolev, Vladimir Komarov - the first person to die in space, and the three victims of the tragic flight of the Soyuz-11 spacecraft in 1971: Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev, whose ashes rest in the Kremlin wall. This tradition is also obligatory for foreigners.
Cosmonauts and to the Alley of Heroes at Baikonur to plant a tree. Yuri Gagarin was the first to do this before the flight. As you might guess, the Gagarin tree is the oldest and largest here.
Before the flights, the astronauts come to the office of the first cosmonaut, where everything remains exactly the same as it was during his life. They examine Gagarin's personal belongings and make entries in the guest book. The most superstitious, according to rumors, ask the spirit of the owner of the office for permission to fly into space.
Today's cosmonauts and astronauts also owe Yuri Gagarin a musical tradition - listening to lyrical songs just before launch. Music lifts your spirits. True, each crew chooses their own repertoire.
The evening before the flight, the astronauts watch only one film - the famous “Western” “White Sun of the Desert.” They are given champagne for breakfast on the day of the flight. Before leaving for the cosmodrome, the astronauts sign the doors of their hotel rooms, and they leave to the sounds of the hit song “Earth in the Porthole.”
On May 28, 2014, television viewers watching the launch of the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft on the ISS saw a stuffed giraffe hovering near the control panel. It was a toy for the daughter of astronaut Reed Wiseman.
But the tradition of taking a talisman on a flight and tying it on a string to the control panel is Soviet-Russian. Tradition has quite practical significance: When the toy begins to float in the air, engineers at the Control Center see that a state of weightlessness has set in, which means the launch was successful.
SUPERSTITIVE ASTRONAUTS
On April 17, 1970, the Apollo 13 crew returned safely to Earth despite an oxygen tank explosion. The emergency shocked NASA management. As a result, National Aeronautics Administration Administrator James Beggs ordered the number 13 to be removed from all NASA programs. This explains the strange numbering of the shuttles in 1981-2011.
The first flight of the STS shuttle took place on April 12, 1981. At first the numbering was fine, but as the 13th flight approached, tensions mounted within NASA. Beggs came up with new system numbering. As a result, after STS-9, ... STS-41B went into space. The first digit in the new numbering indicated the year (the 84th in this case), the second is the number of the launch pad at the cosmodrome, and the letter is the launch sequence according to the schedule.
American astronauts have breakfast with filet mignon and eggs before their flight. Alan Shepard is considered the founder of this tradition. On May 5, 1961, three weeks after Gagarin's flight, he went into space on the Freedom 7 capsule. This morning Alan ate filet mignon with eggs for breakfast. The flight was successful. Since then, astronauts have had breakfast in exactly the same way, hoping for good luck, although not all astronauts have a good appetite on launch day.
There are several other traditions associated with food. Whenever employees at NASA's Pasadena Research Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), launch a probe or unmanned satellite, they eat... peanuts. This tradition was born on July 28, 1964, after the successful launch of the Ranger 7 interplanetary station, which was supposed to fly around the Moon and photograph its invisible side.
As you might guess, before Ranger 7 there were six similar stations with numbers from 1 to 6. The launches of all of them were various reasons were unsuccessful. On the day the seventh station was launched, some engineer brought peanuts to the Mission Control Center and treated them to his colleagues.
Since the flight was a success, the Control Center has since always eaten peanuts during launches. When people go into space, the menu at the Center is more varied. Engineers and scientists eat beans with cornbread.
This tradition is almost two decades younger than the “peanut” one. She was born on April 12, 1981, when the first shuttle took off from Cape Canaveral. By the way, after this simple meal, all newcomers have their ties cut. This ritual came to astronautics from aviation.
Astronauts always play poker on the way to the launch pad. Moreover, the game lasts until the flight commander loses. Astronaut Winston Scott, who once confirmed to the Chicago Tribune that he and his comrades play poker before each flight,
Sergey LAVINOV, magazine "Mysteries of the 20th Century" No. 9 2017
Traditionally, on Saturdays, we publish for you the answers to the quiz in the “Question - Answer” format. We have a variety of questions, both simple and quite complex. The quiz is very interesting and quite popular, we are simply helping you test your knowledge and make sure that you have chosen the correct answer out of the four proposed. And we have another question in the quiz - What does George Aldridge do with astronauts' belongings before going into space?
- A. weighs
- B. treats with an antiseptic
- C. sniffs
- D. packs
The correct answer is C – SNIFFS
George Aldrich is a famous person. And he became famous with the help of his nose, which his colleagues call “a serious instrument in the service of NASA.” Thanks to his sense of smell, Aldrich has been working as a full-time sniffer for the space agency for forty years and, out of duty, and not for the sake of whim, he sniffs each and every object sent into space.
The fact is that any object that ends up on a spaceship leaves its smell there. Unlike the earthly premises, get rid of unpleasant odor ventilation is simply impossible.
Suzanne Harper, head of NASA's nasal laboratory, explains: "On Earth, you can get rid of odor thanks to the influx of fresh air, which gradually dissolves odor molecules until they are unnoticeable. In space this is completely impossible - you won’t open the window to ventilate the room.”
George Aldrich - astronaut bodyguard
And now another example of an unusual profession. What is NASA, you know - National Aeronautics and Space Administration. They launch satellites and space shuttles - Shuttles. Among the mass of “eggheads” (that is, highly learned) employees are five “sniffers”. They sniff everything that should fly into space with the astronaut crews.
One of the reasons for the emergence of this profession was the not very successful flight of the Soviet crew of Boris Volynov and Vitaly Zholobov on the Soyuz-21 spacecraft in 1976. Some time after the normal launch into orbit, the spacecraft commander reported that a foreign smell had appeared in the cabin. At first, no attention was paid to the annoying obstacle, and our cosmonauts spent more than a month in an atmosphere of increasing stench, either due to fuel vapors leaking somewhere, or because of the odors of the plastic lining... An unexpected equipment failure forced the program to be curtailed, and the crew returned to the ground. But even if there had been no emergency, the flight would still have had to be stopped due to the smell. In space you can’t open a window for ventilation...
One of NASA’s “sniffers” named George Aldrich spoke about his amazing profession. He received it quite unexpectedly. 18-year-old George served in the fire department, not even suspecting that he had a unique “nose.” Following an advertisement for volunteers in NASA’s “aroma” department, he applied and took part in control testing. To his surprise, he passed the medical examination and all the tests.
Aldrich correctly identified the bottles with the odorous substance (he was offered ten bottles, of which three were pure water). I distinguished and identified seven main aromas from the proposed bouquet - musky, floral, ethereal, camphorous, minty, pungent and putrefactive.
George was put to work. Since then, over three decades, he has participated in more than seven hundred launch preparations. And every four months he and his colleagues undergo strict smell tests. A good smell specialist must have not only a unique sense of smell, but also good associative and operational memory, as well as... imagination.
Together with other “sniffers”, he “sniffs” absolutely everything at the stand, from circuit boards to astronauts’ clothing and pen paste. The fact is that some objects that have no odor in the Earth’s atmosphere suddenly become sources of gases in space and smell...
“Sniffers” rate odors on a scale from 0 - unnoticeable, then barely or easily detectable - this is 2, then comes unwanted - 3 and, finally, 4 - aggressive. If the score is higher than two and a half points, the odorous object is removed from the spacecraft without further discussion. All the personal belongings of the astronauts are also checked (for example, one of the first female astronauts, Sally Ride, was confiscated by the sniffers... her mascara was too scented). And in preparation for other flights, aftershave lotion, a small album with home photographs, and even someone’s laptop (a portable baby IBM computer) were rejected...
“I feel like I’m the astronaut’s bodyguard,” says Aldrich, “even though I just have a really good nose.”
His business card features a shuttle and a skunk next to each other, and in small letters it reads: “If the space program smells something, I have to smell it.”