Image description: Brand new manufactured parts give off gases from chemicals and residual solvents involved in their manufacture in a process known as outgassing. These gases filling your cabin are the cause of that familiar “new car smell.”
However, if your new car were actually a new spaceship full of extremely sensitive instruments and astronauts unable to roll down the windows, those gases could be a big problem.
In this image, a NASA technologist studies a paint sample as part of research that has resulted in a low-cost technique for preventing damage from outgassed contaminants. Find out more.
Photo by Pat Izzo, NASA.