DBE A Message from Earth

In the time of deep space exploration becoming a reality and the conditions on our planet Earth making human life more difficult to sustain, setting up human bases (to investigate life from other perspectives and providing a context within which to perform various experiments) on the Moon and on the International Space Station are becoming not just a reality but also a necessity. It is important to not only take into account the physical attributes and effects on the human body when being away from Earth but also the emotional and psychological ones. For this reason, it is important to look closely as to whether it is possible to, through these, also influence the physical body, helping to keep it at its optimal state – that is, at the state of the so-called Earthling that is in each and every one of us. In the case of deep space exploration, it is the space of our planet Earth and concept of home that we lack and are in a need of to conjure up on a daily basis in order to secure for our happiness and feelings of comfort and security.

The connection between fragrance and emotions is a very strong one in humans. Science revealed that fragrance can connect us to our deepest memories. With our brain having more than 100,000 receptors for fragrance and for example only 4,000 for taste, it is evident how influential a factor of fragrance is on us humans and how powerful tool a fragrance can be also for us in perceiving the world around us, expressing ourselves and communicating with others. Thus, we anticipate that fragrance can be a useful tool in helping to combat the feelings and physical sensations of isolation, which would occur in humans being in outer space. This was our main inspiration behind the DBE – The Data Bank of Emotions collection of fragrances.

To help against feelings of isolation in the future when humans might need to spend an extended amount of time in space, our DBE – A Message from Earth was sprayed onto the soil, collected at Hawaii’ SEAS base within research projects of EMMIHS-III in Febr. 2020 in the frame of the EuroMoonMars mission. The scented soil was then collected into 1 cubic centimetre cubes to fit into Moon Gallery space, hopefully performing its mission of alleviating feelings of loneliness that may arise during missions in space.

With DBE we want to preserve and nurture the message from Earth even in deep space, and through its fragrance DBE- A MESSAGE FROM EARTH, we want to remain in touch with the Earthling in us, wherever we are.

DBE is not just a fragrance. In its it is a concept envisioned as our data bank of emotions, an emotion tuner, tuning us to our optimal feelings wherever we are. Even if we are in outer space, it will – according to our hypothesis – keep us in tune with the Earthling in us.