Michaël Moisseeff is a Nose who is familiar with never-before-smelt aromas. He has created a perfume which reconstructs the smell discovered by the astronauts that walked on the moon’s surface.

Calling himself the ‘aroma sculptor’, Michaël Moisseeff is a perfume creator, a Nose, who has been the first to reconstruct a very unique scent: that of the moon. The reconstruction is based on the descriptive accounts given by the astronauts. “They had their helmets over their heads, with their space suits and overalls, so obviously they couldn’t smell the scent. However, they take their helmets off when back in their module and when they took them off, the smell in the cabin had changed and that is what this charred black powder smells like” he revealed.

Michaël Moisseeff goes on to unveil the mysteries surrounding his lunar scent. “We’re talking about minerals, so coke and then calcium derivatives. A scent is a substance, molecules which circulate in the air and find their way into the nose; this is where the sensor is found. It is here where there are little keyholes and we need to think of these little scent molecules as being little keys”, explains Moisseeff.

This lunar scent can be found at the Cité de l'espace, the scientific discovery centre in Toulouse (Haut-Garonne). The objective was “to give the visitor an experience as close as possible to that of the astronauts who set foot on the moon”, according to Xavier Penot, scientific mediator at the Cité de l'espace. A Chinese space probe already landed in January 2019 while the South Korean and Japanese lunar programmes are aiming for the end of 2020 and 2021. The United States have set their sights on 2024 for returning to lunar soil.