Essential Oil Experiment On Ill Fated Columbia

[Guest guest]

Chris I was following this experiment. They actually have a perfume

ingredient which they are using in the Perfume called Joy. The flowers I

thought were bloomed aboard one of the missions. I was

very disappointed when the Columbia accident happened. I keep in touch with

NASA and celestial happenings here:

 

<A HREF= " http://www.spaceweather.com/ " >http://www.spaceweather.com/</A>

 

Jackie

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Something smells rosy on space shuttle

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/01/23/shuttle.rose.ap/index.html

 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Hoping to create a new space scent,

shuttle Columbia's astronauts extracted and preserved essential oils

from blooming flowers in an experiment sponsored by the fragrance

industry.

 

Columbia's mini-greenhouse holds a miniature red rose plant with six

buds and an Asian rice flower with a jasmine scent.

 

By essentially pushing a button, the astronauts extended needles over

the blooms Wednesday to collect the oils for chemical analysis back

on Earth by International Flavors & Fragrances Inc.

 

The aroma can be recreated synthetically in ground labs, if desired.

The fragrance company flew a different type of miniature rose plant

aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1998, on the same mission as John

Glenn.

 

It yielded a new scent that ended up in a perfume called Zen and a

body spray called Impulse. Perfume-makers are hoping for similar

success with this flight.

 

Weijia Zhou, director of the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation

and Robotics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, which

developed the space greenhouse, said the scent produced during

Glenn's flight seems milder and more pleasant than the Earth aroma

used for comparison.

 

But he noted: " I'm not a good perfume guy. "

 

The six Americans and one Israeli aboard Columbia enjoyed some time

off Wednesday. They are nearing the midway point of their 16-day

round-the-clock laboratory mission.