Scientists in China have opened a new $276,500,000 facility capable of producing gravity 1,900 times stronger than that on Earth.
The Centrifugal Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Experiment Facility (CHIEF) began construction at Future Sci-Tech City, Hangzhou in 2020 and now, one of its world-leading centrifuges is operational.
Said to be the world's largest centrifuge, which can 'compress' time and space, it will allow research into complex physics and engineering problems.
The project was greenlit in 2018 by the national government and has cost some $276.5 million, according to the South China Morning Post.
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The facility is made up of six hypergravity experiment chambers in total, and will enable research into slope and dam engineering, seismic geotechnics and deep-sea and deep-earth engineering.
Geological processes and materials processing will also be studied.
The centrifuge - a giant, spinning arm - can carry a payload and spins fast to create 'fake' gravity stronger than the 1G we usually experience on Earth.
NASA said that artificial gravity could be a crucial step in helping astronauts travel to Mars.
The arm's motion creates the centrifugal force, helping to replicate conditions to test material strengths in a variety of scenarios.
For example, rocket and other spacecraft materials can be stress-tested against the effects of microgravity experienced in orbit.
It can also be used to learn more about our planet's own environment, including mountain formations and river flood dynamics on dams.
Chen Yunmin, a professor at Zhejiang University which led the CHIEF project, said the facility means 'scientists can observe the transport of pollutants that in nature would take tens of thousands of years'.
As per New Atlas, CHIEF can support a centrifuge capacity of 1,900 g-t (gravity acceleration × ton), and payloads of up to 32 tons.
That's more than the US Army Corps of Engineers' facility that manages 1,200 g-t.
Meanwhile NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland was one of the largest facilities in the world some 10 years ago.
Its centrifuge is capable of accelerating a 2.5- ton payload up to 30G, which pales in comparison to CHIEF.
It measured up to 140 ft in diameter, with a rotational top speed of 156 mph (250 km/h).
The exact measurements of CHIEF's three main centrifuges are yet to be disclosed.
The government of Hangzhou said the 'first phase of commissioning' at CHIEF will 'take place this year' as planned.
Topics: China, Environment, Science, Space, Technology, World News
Ellie Kemp