Dn space, no one will hear you scream, but the rocket that took you there made a lot of noise when it took off. It is even the most powerful sound produced by man, on average 174 decibels. An experience ultimately much more sound than visual, as its passage is furtive while we continue to hear it and feel its vibrations even once it has disappeared from our field of vision.
And it is to fill our ears that ArianeGroup and Devialet, French specialist in connected speakers, have joined forces to offer a “sound odyssey to space”. After a first presentation at the Universal Exhibition in Dubai, head to the heart of Paris and the newly reopened Samaritaine to discover this immersive experience.
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In the basement, you can see perfectly integrated into the decor of the department store, the white cube, equipped with 8 speakers and 4 screens to immerse yourself in the sound environment of a rocket taking off.
3 min 30 to Kourou
To create this experience, Antoine Petroff, sound engineer at Devialet, went to the very places where the Ariane rockets took off. In August 2019, he went to the French launch base of Kourou in Guyana for several days to install his three microphones (ambisonic, stereo, cannon) as close as possible to the rocket, between 5 and 8 km from the launch pad precisely.
This gives 3 min 30 which begin in the jungle, the animals are interrupted by the countdown (which we are almost surprised to hear in French as the American imagination is essential on this subject) and it is the ignition of the engines for takeoff.
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On the screens, the stylized milky ways of the beginning give way to increasingly psychedelic images as the speed increases and the rocket crosses the different layers of the atmosphere.You can hear the roar of the engine, the crackling of the flames and you can physically feel the vibrations of the sound which amplifies as the passage of the air accelerates.
A peak at 105 decibels
Until we reach the sound peak of our trip, 105 decibels, the equivalent of a metal concert, then comes the feeling of aspiration towards the atmosphere and the calm which returns with a quasi-silence which resembles this what Thomas Pesquet can hear when he joins the ISS.
If the soundscape of the jungle at the start or the 35 seconds following take-off were not processed, the rest of this odyssey had to be reconstituted, in particular for the spatial part. A work between technical and artistic assembly, according to its designers, and a great way to take flight without increasing its carbon footprint.
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“Sound Journey To Space”, from January 26 to February 14, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., without reservation at the beauty atrium located at – 1 of the Pont-Neuf de la Samaritaine building.