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POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; No, it doesn’t cost between $25-30K to replace most electric vehicle batteries; Montgomery County to revise tax abatement guidelines as defaults continue; Harris County tax rate vote stalled for third time as law enforcement appear en masse at commissioners court; Rodney Reed pleads before U.S. Supreme Court for DNA testing that might establish his innocence; U.S. Supreme Court rejects request to review Texas death row inmate Andre Thomas’ case; Charlottesville museum hoping to melt Lee statue must tell plaintiffs where it is; Former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard says she is leaving the Democratic Party; Russia’s FSB arrests eight for Crimea Bridge blast; European weapons manufacturers scramble to adapt to wartime demand; Tom Cruise set to become first actor to shoot movie in outer space; NASA Astronaut Warns Tom Cruise About What The ISS Smells Like; What does space smell like?: More

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) on KPFT-HD2, Houston’s Community Station. You can also hear the show:

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Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. My co-host and show editor is Andrew Ferguson.

• An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.
• You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

1. Make sure you are registered to vote! VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter InformationTEXAS SoS VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT APPLICATION (ALL TEXAS COUNTIES) HarrisVotes.com­ – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
   1. Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2022
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      8. For personalized, nonpartisan voter guides and information, Consider visiting Vote.ORG.   Ballotpedia.com and Texas League of Women Voters are also good places to get election info.
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   2. NEXT ELECTION: 2022 November General Election – November 8, 2022
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3. CONSUMER PSA: No, it doesn’t cost between $25-30K to replace most electric vehicle batteries; Experts say electric vehicle batteries typically cost between $2,000 and $10,000 to replace, but some are more expensive. Author: Megan Loe | KHOU.COM | Published: 6:12 PM CDT October 11, 2022, Updated: 6:12 PM CDT October 11, 2022
   1. MIKE: Here’s the executive summary. The cost of a replacement battery depends on whether it’s new or a rebuilt, on the make and model of the car, and on the age of the car and battery availability. (On at least some cars. OEM parts aren’t made anymore for cars over 10 years old.)
   2. MIKE: When I’m shopping for a new or used car, I check the cost of insuring it and engine accessibility, among other things. The ease of engine access or lack thereof affects labor hours. The upshot is that checking on a few major concerns in advance can warn you off a car. For electric cars — new or used — replacement cost can vary widely, and may factor into your buying decision.
4. Montgomery County to revise tax abatement guidelines as defaults continue; By Jishnu Nair | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 2:17 PM Oct 11, 2022 CDT, Updated 2:17 PM Oct 11, 2022
   1. Montgomery County commissioners assigned Precinct 1 Commissioner Robert Walker and Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack to assist in updating the county’s guidelines for property tax abatements at an 11 meeting. The move is required by statute but comes in the light of several companies defaulting on previously agreed abatements. …
   2. The Oct. 11 meeting saw two individual abatements brought up for termination with Bauer Manufacturing doing business as NEORig. The Bauer abatement for its Conroe Industrial Park facility was terminated on the company’s initiation, and McRae reported Bauer had already paid back the $73,560.45 owed to the county.
   3. A separate abatement agreement with Illinois-based human resources consulting company Alight Solutions, LLC and The Woodlands Land Development Company was brought forward, but no action was taken. McRae said the company was also struggling to meet the minimum employee requirement of 950 workers in its Woodlands Medical Park facility.
   4. MIKE: The kind of “default” involved here isn’t precisely “not paying taxes due.” This is a business tax abatement story, I.e., businesses have been granted property tax discounts for certain promises of investment in the county and maintaining certain numbers of employees. Some companies are falling short of employment levels, and thus are in default on their contractual abatement obligations.  These companies, by failing to create and maintain the number of jobs promised in return for their special tax status are thus cheating in two ways: they’re not paying the higher taxes they should now be paying, and they’re saving labor costs by creating fewer jobs than they promised.
   5. MIKE: Exxon was found guilty of the same tax abatement default in The Woodlands a year or two ago.
   6. MIKE: These companies get these big tax breaks and have to be audited every year, like children. It’s even more pathetic how often they’re in violation of their abatement agreements.
   7. MIKE: These multi-million dollar business entities are getting a sweet deal, and are large enough to know exactly what they’re doing. Adherence should be assumed. The companies in violation have obviously made the calculation that if they’re not caught, they save on both taxes and labor expenses.
   8. MIKE: Based on my assumption that premeditation is the case, and if states, counties and cities are going to continue with these ridiculous abatements in a race-to-the-bottom bidding contest, then penalties for company violation should be severe, along the lines of back taxes, back salaries and triple damages when the violations are discovered. A second violation should be seen as reneging on the contract and the abatement should be canceled.
   9. ANDREW: I think the reason governments don’t set those harsh penalties is because they know companies would stop being interested in the abatements. To me, the whole point of a tax abatement is to allow a company to knowingly take advantage of local government and citizens. In exchange, that company builds a presence in that area, providing at best good press for conservative local officials who want to be seen as “friendly to business” and “job creators”, and at worst giving kickbacks and possibly a cushy job offer from that very company once the official’s term is up. Making abatements less exploitative defeats their purpose, so local officials who are willing to hand out these abatements will never do it. I do want to see abatements more tightly regulated, or even banned outright, but it will have to come from higher officials who aren’t conservatives or otherwise in the pocket of capital.
5. Harris County tax rate vote stalled for third time as law enforcement appear en masse at commissioners court; By Rachel Carlton | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 6:47 PM Oct 11, 2022 CDT, Updated 6:47 PM Oct 11, 2022 CDT
   1. Harris County commissioners were unable to vote to adopt a tax rate for the third consecutive meeting as Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey and Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle did not appear at the Oct. 11 meeting.
   2. Ramsey released a video before court reiterating his request for $20 million for 200 additional law enforcement patrol officers for the sheriff’s office and constables’ offices, and Cagle said in an emailed statement that the court’s majority had not responded to his alternate tax rate proposal from last week or scheduled a discussion-only meeting. …
   3. If a quorum of four members is not present to vote on the rate by Oct. 28, the county will be forced to adopt the no-new-revenue rate, which caps the county’s property tax-generated revenue to the same amount as the previous year.
   4. County Judge Lina Hidalgo left the meeting early, saying she had recently visited the emergency room and had an order from her doctor to rest, but that another meeting would be posted before the next regular meeting on Oct. 25. As she exited the courtroom, she was booed by members of the audience, many of whom were in law enforcement uniforms.
   5. In a picture tweeted by Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman before the court meeting, over 100 people who appeared to be affiliated with law enforcement posed behind a banner with the words “Stop Defunding.” Herman told Community Impact law enforcement came to court to support District Attorney Kim Ogg and speak on an agenda item she had submitted for the meeting.
   6. “We’re down there because the budget office in Harris County gave us a letter … that basically says that since Cagle and Ramsey are not showing up, that we’re going to be defunded,” Herman said. “We feel like our budgets are being held hostage while [the court’s majority] go[es] through [its] political-whatever-it-is with Cagle and Ramsey. It shouldn’t be this way.” …
   7. [Daniel Ramos, Executive Director, Office of Management and Budget] said in a statement to Community Impact the cuts are compared to the budget originally proposed by his office, which he said increased funding to the constables’ offices.
   8. “That increase has not proceeded because we have not had a quorum to pass a tax rate that would support it,” Ramos said. “I still hope that there will be a compromise on the tax rate which will allow the county to restore the increases to public safety and other county departments.”
   9. Herman said it does not matter to him whether the other commissioners show and that he just needs his budget. But according to the budget office’s letter, the Precinct 4 constable’s office budget would be $2.88 million smaller under the no-new-revenue rate than it would be under the proposed rate opposed by Ramsey and Cagle.
   10. MIKE: So the grandstanding by Ramsey and Cagle is keeping the Constables from getting a bigger budget, and the budget changes proposed by Ramsey and Cagle will actually be a smaller budget that somewhat “defunds” the Constables. So Ramsey and Cagle’s political games are smoke-and-mirrors hypocrisy.
   11. MIKE: For those interested, there is a 3-page PDF showing the budget breakdown.
   12. ANDREW: So a mob of people who were given licenses to kill by the state showed up at a government building to demand that officials take a certain course of action? I thought liberal democracy was supposed to make that whole thing unnecessary. Cynicism aside, if I didn’t think programs keeping people alive would also have their budgets slashed under it, I’d almost consider supporting Cagle’s tax plan. Maybe some of the other Commissioners would too, if only Cagle would send it in to the Court like Hidalgo asked so they could actually read it and research it. Again, this is an artificial political crisis that Cagle and Ramsey created and are keeping alive. Why? For a slightly better result at election time.
6. Rodney Reed pleads before U.S. Supreme Court for DNA testing that might establish his innocence; The nation’s high court heard arguments Tuesday on whether Reed can seek DNA testing of crucial evidence in the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites in Bastrop County. By Roxanna Asgarian | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Oct. 11, 202211 hours ago
   1. Rodney Reed has been sitting on death row at Texas’ infamous Polunsky Unit for more than two decades, convicted of abducting, raping and murdering 19-year-old Stacey Stites as she drove to her early morning shift at HEB.
   2. Reed has maintained his innocence all that time, and his lawyers have argued repeatedly that there might be a way to prove it: testing crime scene evidence that was never checked for DNA, including the murder weapon itself, a woven leather belt used to strangle Stites.
   3. Reed’s best chance at getting that evidence tested now rests with the U.S. Supreme Court, which on Tuesday heard oral arguments centering on one procedural question: Did Reed wait too long to ask a federal court to order the tests?
   4. Ironically, the state’s case against Reed partly relied on DNA evidence. When Reed’s sperm was found inside Stites’ body after her death, Reed became the prime suspect in her murder. Reed contends that in 1996, he and Stites were engaged in a consensual affair and had sex in the hours before her death. Reed is Black and Stites was white; his lawyers argue that Stites’ fiancé, Jimmy Fennell, also white, was violent and racist and that he likely murdered his fiancé after discovering the affair. Reed hopes to bolster this theory through DNA evidence found on the murder weapon. …
   5. Reed’s execution was set for November 2019 but was stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and sent back to a lower court for review of new claims, including that he is innocent of the crimes. In 2021, after an evidentiary hearing, a district judge ruled the new evidence was not enough to justify granting Reed a new trial. …
   6. The state has argued that the crime scene items should not be tested because they were improperly stored and may be contaminated. In 2014, a district court agreed, and in 2017, the Criminal Court of Appeals, Texas’s highest criminal court, affirmed that decision.
   7. Reed’s attorneys then brought a federal claim under Section 1983, which allows individuals to sue state actors for violating their rights. In Texas, those claims have a statute of limitations of two years. The state is arguing that the statute of limitations began in 2014 when the district court made its initial decision not to test the DNA.
   8. “No provision of Texas law requires an applicant to appeal a denial of DNA testing in state court,” the state argued in its brief to the Supreme Court. “Reed knew that he was injured when he was denied testing, and he could have pursued a facial challenge in federal court on due-process grounds immediately after that denial.” …
   9. In Tuesday’s oral arguments, Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone told the justices that the more time goes by, the harder it is for the state to defend its case, as evidence degrades and witnesses age. “Additional delay harms the state’s ability to be able to redress this if, for example, he’s entitled to a new trial for one reason or another, which he most emphatically is not,” Stone argued. …
   10. MIKE: As Charles Dickens wrote in “Oliver Twist”, “If the law supposes that, … the law is an ass …” ~ Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist ch. 51 (1838). See Glapthorne 1)
   11. ANDREW: : I want to call out a particular part of the state’s brief to the court: quote, “Reed knew that he was injured when he was denied testing…”, unquote. Essentially, Texas is admitting that they did injure Mr. Reed– an injury that could have changed whether he was convicted or not– but because the legal process has moved on, and there’s no reverse gear, it’s too late to test the DNA found on the weapon. Too bad, so sad. By this logic, Mr. Reed is not convicted because of a preponderance of evidence, but because determining whether he is innocent or not– the supposed purpose of the so-called justice system– is inconvenient for the state. This brief should be considered Texas’ admission of guilt, Mr. Reed should get some kind of restitution (maybe a commutation of his sentence), and the DNA on the weapon should finally be tested.
7. US Supreme Court rejects request to review Texas death row inmate Andre Thomas’ case; Thomas’ attorneys appealed saying that some members of the jury that sentenced him had expressed racist views. In their dissent, the court’s three liberal justices wrote that Thomas’ conviction and death sentence were unconstitutional. by Alejandro Serrano | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Oct. 11, 2022, Updated: 13 hours ago
   1. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request Tuesday to take up the case of Texas death row inmate Andre Thomas, whose lawyers argued that members of the jury that convicted him of killing his wife and two children had expressed racist views.
   2. A 6-3 majority of the court turned down the request. Seeking the court’s intervention, Thomas’ lawyers had argued that three members of the all-white jury — which found Thomas, who is Black, guilty of killing his wife, who was white, their son and her daughter — had expressed opposition to interracial marriage. Thomas’ initial lawyer did not object to their seating.
   3. The court did not elaborate on why it had declined to review the case. Three justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — wrote in a dissenting opinion that Thomas’ conviction and death sentence “clearly violate the constitutional right to the effective assistance of counsel.” …
   4. “This case involves a heinous crime apparently committed by someone who suffered severe psychological trauma,” Sotomayor said in the dissent. “Whether Thomas’ psychological disturbances explain or in any way excuse his commission of murder, however, is beside the point. No jury deciding whether to recommend a death sentence should be tainted by potential racial biases that could infect its deliberations or decision, particularly where the case involved an interracial crime.”
   5. Thomas, who is blind and had gouged his eyes, was not a danger to anyone, his lawyer Maurie Levin said Tuesday.
   6. “To pursue his execution would be nothing but an ugly spectacle and would not make Texans safer,” Levin said in a statement.
   7. Thomas had schizophrenia and active psychosis, first hearing voices and attempting to kill himself at 10 years old, Levin said. He tried twice again in the three weeks before the murders, and he also sought help at hospitals that noted he was “experiencing delusions, religious hallucinations, and hearing voices,” Levin said.
   8. After the killings, he stabbed himself five times in the chest in what Levin described as an attempt “to take his own life.”
   9. “No one who hears the story of Mr. Thomas’ life believes he is mentally competent,” Levin said. “Guiding a blind, delusional man onto Texas’ gurney would be an indelible image that would cast a permanent shadow over Texas’ reputation. Texas can keep the public safe by keeping Mr. Thomas in prison for life.”
   10. MIKE: I don’t see how any reasonable person can conclude that Andre’ Thomas was legally competent to stand trial, aside from being competent enough to understand his punishment.
   11. MIKE: I’ve evolved over my life from being pro-death penalty to being absolutely opposed to it. And there are many reasons that others may or may not agree with, but I have a saying: “When people are in agreement, why they agree doesn’t matter.” Whether it’s the cruelty, the inhumaneness, the cost, the risk of executing innocent people, or something else, it just shouldn’t be done.
   12. ANDREW: Mr. Thomas has been repeatedly failed by society. As a child, he often lacked access to basic utilities and had no support to get them. As a teenager, he acted out by committing crimes and was incarcerated instead of being given support and compassion. As an adult, he had problems finding work and was given little useful assistance, and when a friend sent him to a mental health clinic for having suicidal thoughts, the clinic wanted to institutionalize him instead of talking with him. His trial compounded on that, with his legal counsel allowing a questionable attribution of his mental state to drugs, making him ineligible for an insanity defense. And, of course, the jury’s racist views. The Supreme Court’s ruling is just the most recent in this long line of intentional societal neglect and cruelty that Mr. Thomas has endured. He committed a heinous crime, and should atone for it, but he must have the chance to do so– a chance he will never get if he is killed.
8. Charlottesville museum hoping to melt Lee statue must tell plaintiffs where it is; By Teo Armus | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | October 10, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. EDT
   1. A Charlottesville museum that wants to melt down one of the city’s toppled Confederate statues must tell lawyers who are suing to stop that plan where the monument is located, a judge ruled Monday, setting the stage for a trial over the sculpture’s fate.
   2. Local activists had raised security concerns regarding the bronze statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which had served as the focal point of the deadly Unite the Right rally in 2017 and had been the subject of a lengthy legal battle over whether it could be taken down.
   3. Since then, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center won a bid to take over the statue from Charlottesville and “disassembled” the monument after receiving it from the city. It is now in storage in an undisclosed location.
   4. The ruling from Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. means that the museum must reveal to the plaintiffs’ lawyers where exactly the Lee statue is located and must allow those lawyers and any expert witnesses to inspect it.But the museum will not be required to share that information with the public — a possible outcome its leaders worried could put their plan in jeopardy.
   5. The plaintiffs suing the city over the statue’s future are the Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation, which runs a Civil War battlefield in Louisa County, Va., and the Ratcliffe Foundation, which manages a museum in Russell County, Va., linked to a Confederate general.
   6. Both entities had submitted bids to take over the Lee statue from the city of Charlottesville but lost to the proposal from the Jefferson School. The foundations’ legal team includes Jock Yellott, who was one of several plaintiffs who sued in 2017 to stop the city from taking down the Lee statue to begin with. …
   7. The Jefferson School had asked the judge to require anyone receiving information about the statue’s location to sign a declaration saying they would keep that information private. Peatross’s ruling included no such requirements, but the plaintiffs’ legal team could still be held in contempt of court if they do go public. …
   8. ANDREW: I am in favor of melting down the statue; Robert E. Lee fought to uphold the enslavement of Black people and that should disqualify him from any kind of honors. From a more patriotic side, he was also a traitor to the United States. If the statue is already down, its material may as well be reclaimed. I think trying to keep the statue’s present location secret makes sense as you never know what people will do, but I understand the process requiring the plaintiffs’ lawyers and any experts to inspect the statue. I just hope the plaintiffs themselves aren’t told, because I think they’d be the main suspects if somebody steals it.
9. Former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard says she is leaving the Democratic Party; By Ayana Archie | NPR.ORG | October 12, 2022, 2:25 AM ET
   1. Former congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has announced she is leaving the Democratic party.
   2. “I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic party,” she said on an episode of her podcast. “It’s now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers, driven by cowardly wokeness…”
   3. Gabbard additionally accused the party of “stoking anti-white racism,” being contemptuous toward religion and police, and driving the country closer to nuclear war.
   4. Gabbard was first elected to her native state of Hawaii’s legislature in 2002 as a Democrat, at the age of 21. She has identified as a Democrat ever since, she said. …
   5. ANDREW: Jesus. It was bad enough that she was transphobic, but now she’s gone off the deep end. About the only reasonable criticism she has is the party pushing for nuclear war, but the Republicans aren’t any better there. I bet she’s still considering jumping to them, though.
10. Russia’s FSB arrests eight for Crimea Bridge blast; Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge | REUTERS | October 12, 2022, 2:21 AM CDT, Last Updated 2 hours ago
    1. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday that it had detained five Russians and three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia over the explosion that damaged the Crimea Bridge last Saturday.
    2. The FSB said the explosion was organised Ukrainian military intelligence and its director, Kyrylo Budanov. The explosive device was moved from Ukraine to Russia via Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia, the FSB said. …
    3. Ukraine has not officially confirmed its involvement in the bridge blast, but some Ukrainian officials have celebrated the damage. …
    4. The bridge, a prestige project personally opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, had become logistically vital to his military campaign, with supplies to Russian troops fighting in south Ukraine channelled through it. …
    5. MIKE: This story is interesting on several levels. One is that 5 Russians were allegedly involved. When Andrew and I were discussing this, he raised a question about the FSB mentioning Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia as conduit countries for the explosives. There are some potential implications in that.
    6. ANDREW: Yes. I think the invasion of Ukraine has shown that Putin’s goal is empire-building — which, for the record, is wrong no matter who does it — and I wonder if this incident will be used to justify invasions of Bulgaria, Georgia, and Armenia.
11. European weapons manufacturers scramble to adapt to wartime demand; By Benoit Van Overstraeten | October 11, 2022, 9:44 AM CDT, Last Updated 19 hours ago
    1. European arms manufacturers have urged the European Union to help coordinate weapons procurement as they scramble to boost production to meet soaring demand for the war in Ukraine.
    2. Meeting ahead of a NATO defence ministers gathering in Brussels, defence company executives said their industry had been geared up for EU states spending less on defence rather than more, after decades of peace in Europe.
    3. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance has started dialogue with industry and allies on how to boost production and replenish weapons stocks.
    4. He told a news conference that defence ministers would take decisions to increase stockpiles. Reducing stocks had been the right thing to do to support Ukraine, but production now needed to ramp up to ensure their allies’ own capabilities and to continue support for Ukraine “for the long haul”.
    5. The NATO chief said he expected ministers to decide on more ambitious targets that would provide industry with the long-term demand they required to invest in new capacity and look at joint purchases. …
    6. MIKE: Military industrial capacity is something Andrew and I have discussed several times over the past months. In our case, we’ve focused on HIMARS, Javelins and Stingers on the US side, but there’s all kinds of high tech weaponry that just can’t be produced fast like turning on a faucet when you need them. There’s a saying with various attributions that “quantity has a quality all its own.” Soviet and Russian weapons aren’t as good as NATO weapons, but the Russians build a lot of them cheaply. As the Russo-Ukraine war drags on, that premise is being increasingly put to the test.
    7. ANDREW: This story underscores to me the importance of finding a peaceful end to the Ukrainian invasion as soon as possible. As you say, Mike, a lot of weapons can’t be produced right when they’re needed, and once started, production can’t be stopped easily. Prolonging this war by trying to humiliate Russia gives more chances for countries to spend billions in public funds on weapons that they may not end up needing. The US should start advocating to extend an olive branch to Russia so that they can save face, Ukraine can get its Russian-occupied non-separatist territory back, people can stop dying and being drafted and arrested for opposing the war, and public money can be put to better use than stockpiling weapons.
12. Tom Cruise set to become first actor to shoot movie in outer space; By Lexie Cartwright, NEWS.COM.AU | October 9, 2022 4:48am, Updated
    1. Just when you thought Tom Cruise achieved his greatest possible cinematic triumph with the success of the Top Gun sequel, the blockbuster star comes up with an idea that is, quite literally, out of this world.
    2. The 60-year-old Hollywood veteran has reportedly teamed up withThe Bourne Identitydirector Doug Liman on a movie pitch that involves filming in space, which was first tabled in 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic halted plans.
    3. Cruise and Liman are said to have reached out to Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (UFEG) on an idea which will see the actor take a rocket up to the International Space Station. …
    4. [UFEG Chairman Donna Langley] revealed most of the movie would be shot on earth, culminating in “the character [going] up to space to save the day”, adding she is hopeful Cruise will become “the first civilian to do a space walk outside of the space station.” …
13. NASA Astronaut Warns Tom Cruise About What The ISS Smells Like; NASA astronaut Victor Glover has spoken with actor Tom Cruise and described the odor of the International Space Station. By Jak Connor (@JakConnorTT) | TweakTown.com | Published Tue, Feb 1 2022, 2:32 AM CST
    1. … [A] topic discussed was the smell of the International Space Station, where Glover says that the ISS smells very much like a hospital, with it similarities being that it smells like a sterile, antiseptic, germ-free environment. Additionally, the NASA astronaut says that the smells are localized, but the module on the space station that houses all of the workout equipment as well as the bathroom smells like a “locker room”.
    2. [Glover told Cruise,] “When you first get to space station is when you notice the smell the strongest because you kind of get saturated and you get used to it after, but it was an interesting combination. And again, it’s also local. When you go into the module that has the lifting, the strength training equipment, that’s also where the bathroom is. So, that’s the most odoriferous module. That one smells like a locker room.”
    3. MIKE: Someone needed to tell NASA that this is why bathrooms have vent fans.
14. What does space smell like?: Burnt steak, gunpowder … and walnuts?; Australian Academy of Science | Last updated 04-10-2017
    1. What do walnuts, brake pads and burnt steak have in common? According to astronauts, they all smell like space. While each astronaut smells something a bit different, they all agree ‘space stinks’.
    2. Obviously, space is a vacuum, so no one has really ‘smelled’ it before in the traditional sense of the word. If you tried, you’d die. But we can smell it indirectly.  Researchers have been able to identify numerous compounds and elements within the galaxy—many of which are also found here on Earth. We are therefore able to make some assumptions about how they would smell in space. Astronauts returning from space walks have also described the tang on their spacesuits or in the airlocks of the shuttle.
    3. The smells of space are important because they can tell us a lot about the chemical composition of our galaxy, revealing secrets of our solar system.

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