Calling all space ravers: Here’s an absurdly large sound system that will never blast galactic beats. It’s powerful enough for a huge concert at a stadium, but this towering rig will never make sound for ears.
We recently learned about the European Space Agency’s killer acoustic chamber which is allegedly so loud that no human could survive inside. Now look at the photo above, taken at the Lockheed-Martin Waterton Reverberant Acoustic Lab: These stacked speakers produce a deafening roar of up to 150 decibels. The goal is not to shower the Orion spacecraft with tunes — the din simulates the vibration and noise that occur during launch. 150 dB is about the same amount of noise a gunshot produces right next to your ear, or a jet engine on full throttle at a distance of 30m. So it’s loud!
The advantage to the new rig is that it’s portable. Just as Metallica rolls its sounds system into stadiums each night, NASA and Lockheed can test spacecraft anywhere it can truck the speakers.
