• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
China’s world-leading $276,500,000 science facility will produce forces 1,900 times stronger than Earth's gravity

Home> Technology> News

Updated 11:33 20 Nov 2024 GMTPublished 11:35 20 Nov 2024 GMT

China’s world-leading $276,500,000 science facility will produce forces 1,900 times stronger than Earth's gravity

The huge centrifuge is thought to be the most powerful in the world

Ellie Kemp

Ellie Kemp

Featured Image Credit: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images/Hangzhou Municipal People's Government

Topics: China, Environment, Science, Space, Technology, World News

Ellie Kemp
Ellie Kemp

Advert

Advert

Advert

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.

Advert

Construction began on the facility in 2020 (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Construction began on the facility in 2020 (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

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.

Advert

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.

A rendering of the completed CHIEF building (Hangzhou Municipal People's Government)
A rendering of the completed CHIEF building (Hangzhou Municipal People's Government)

For example, rocket and other spacecraft materials can be stress-tested against the effects of microgravity experienced in orbit.

Advert

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.

Advert

This centrifuge was designed primarily for training of Apollo astronauts (Bettmann/Getty Images)
This centrifuge was designed primarily for training of Apollo astronauts (Bettmann/Getty Images)

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).

Advert

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.

Choose your content:

a day ago
2 days ago
3 days ago
4 days ago
  • a day ago

    Microsoft boss sparks outrage with shocking advice to employees who are being fired because of AI

    Matt Turnbull has since deleted the controversial post

    Technology
  • 2 days ago

    Man who bought physical Bitcoin bar 13 years ago finally sells it for unbelievable amount

    He paid $500 for the bar back in 2012

    Technology
  • 3 days ago

    Asteroid worth $10,000,000,000,000,000,000 that NASA is capturing could have a devastating impact

    NASA is hoping to capture the highly valuable asteroid in 2029

    Technology
  • 4 days ago

    People are only just realizing what the 'G' stands for in 5G and it's not what you might think

    5G is used by over 1.5 billion every day, but what does the 'G' actually stand for?

    Technology
  • China is slowing down the Earth's rotation with $37,000,000,000 project that left NASA worried
  • Scientist issues warning the shortest day in history will happen in weeks as Earth's rotation is speeding up
  • World's biggest mega project will cost an eye-watering $137,000,000,000
  • Huge ancient forest world discovered 630ft down sinkhole in China