[Moonbase-discuss] Re: Taste & scent in 0-G

[Randall Clague]

On Wed, 19 Jun 2002 16:14:49 -0400, JonAlexandr@aol.com wrote:

>What references do you have about taste and smell being "different" in =
0-G?  I'm skeptical
>about the 'blood circulation' comments you make.  I doubt our senses of =
taste and smell
>function differently in 0-G.  I've never read of any astronauts making =
such a comment.
>At best, it would seem to be a contextual difference, not a =
physiological one.

It's true enough.  I've heard it for years, mostly from astronauts.
The early astronauts routinely lost weight on missions.  Part of that
was that they were too busy to eat, but another part was that they
couldn't work up much interest in the food, because it was so
tasteless.  NASA works around the problem on Shuttle and Station by
putting a lot of spices and other distinct flavors in the food, and
encouraging astronauts to include their favorite spices in their
personal allowance.  I don't know how the Russians deal with the
problem.

I don't know the explanation, but it probably has something to do with
blood pooling in the chest and head.  This leads to, among other
things, nasal and sinus congestion, which is probably the
de-sensitizing mechanism.  There's got to be more to it than that,
though; if sinus congestion was the sole mechanism, Sudafed would
restore the sense of taste, and I haven't heard of any solution, much
less one as simple as an OTC med.

A bigger concern for me is noise pollution.  Alpha is very noisy, from
all the fans - about like a freeway shoulder, IIRC.  The Russian
stations were just as bad in a different way; they were controlled
from the ground, and the controllers had the (perfectly sensible, from
their perspective) habit of doing station-keeping maneuvers during the
cosmonauts' sleep period.  Those thrusters are loud.

A poor sense of smell could be a good thing in an early space camp -
it would probably stink of plastic and lubricant.  A poor sense of
taste would go along with a poor sense of smell.  But having no peace
and quiet can make it hard to think, let alone sleep - both essential
for long term success.

-R

--
"Sutton is the beginning of wisdom -
but only the beginning."
                     -- Jeff Greason