Using astronauts’ first-hand descriptions of the moon, which apparently smells faintly like gunpowder, an artist named Sue Corke has created the first-ever lunar scratch & sniff cards, which she produced in collaboration with flavorist Steven Pearce and astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr.
It’s believed that the moon’s gunpowder smell comes from the “basalt rock from ancient lava flows on the side of the moon that always faces Earth.”
“I like the idea of creating a false memory. Smell, place and memory are very closely linked. No one who sniffs our postcard from the moon is ever likely to go there. Yet now I hope this is a smell, similar to a freshly struck match, which will always remind them of it.”
(AOL via Mental Floss via Photojojo via Gizmodo)
