Artemis 1 Megarocket Launch by NASA Was Extremely Loud

 By Keven Hurler

February 15, 2023

Thanks to the successful launch and return of the Artemis 1 mission in late 2022, NASA's new lunar programme is up and running. Recent physics study found that the Space Launch System megarocket's boom was louder than expected, but not as loud as the NASA launch that gave rise to the urban legend.

On November 16, NASA launched the 5.75-million-pound Space Launch System from Florida's Kennedy Space Center, formally launching the Artemis programme. In a recent study, researchers crunched the figures to determine how loud NASA's SLS megarocket launch actually was. The greatest noise level at one mile from the launch pad was 136 decibels, which is comparable to the roar of a jet engine at 100 yards. Today, JASA Express Letters published the team's study.

According to a press release from the American Institute of Physics, lead author Kent Gee, an associate professor of physics at Brigham Young University, said, "We hope these early data will help minimise the spread of possible disinformation, as happened with the Saturn 5." Numerous websites and discussion forums recommended sound levels that were excessively loud, with untrue claims that the Saturn 5's sound waves caused grass fires and the melting of concrete.

A rumour spread that the NASA Saturn V rocket launch in November 1967, which produced 7.6 million pounds of thrust and launched from the Kennedy Space Center, was so loud that it melted concrete and set grass on fire over a mile distant. In a paper released last year, researchers led by Gee disproved that rumour by simulating the launch and determining that the Saturn V's liftoff most likely had a sound level reaching an estimated 203 dB. Before the rocket's engines started, 450,000 gallons of water were poured onto the mobile launcher as part of NASA's sound-suppression mechanism for Artemis 1.

The study team positioned microphones between 0.9 miles (1.5 kilometres) and 3.2 miles from the launch pad in advance of the Artemis 1 launch (5.2 kilometers). The sound level decreased naturally the further the microphone was from the launch pad, but according to the authors, the noise of liftoff was louder than anticipated at all five recording locations. For instance, the 3.2-mile station measured sound at 129 dB, which is about 20 decibels more than the pre-launch noise model prediction.

According to a statement from the American Institute of Physics, author Grant Hart, "this underscores a need to reassess and possibly change those models." At Brigham Young University, Hart teaches physics as an associate professor.

The launch pad was damaged by the SLS because it was so powerful. The location was covered in scorch marks, missing paint, broken cameras, and elevator doors from the tower that were torn off by the liftoff's shockwave.