The scientist said that the coating would "dry" in the "atmosphere" of space. A poor choice of words for a scientist. An atmosphere is an planet-bound item consisting of a planet-wide sphere of gas. Space is mostly vacuum. There is an heliosphere which contains the solar wind and could possibly wear away the fatty coating, but it doesn't come close to having the consistency of an atmosphere. Just a poor choice of words for a scientist. Maybe she was surprised by the outlandish claim and didn't have time to think through what she wanted to say.