Chinese scientists have built an “artificial moon” that simulates low-gravity environments, similar to the moon, and will help them prepare astronauts for future exploration missions , reports the South China Morning Post.
The artificial moon, which will be launched officially in the next few months, it is a vacuum chamber of 60 centimeters in diameter diameter that will use a powerful magnetic field to recreate the low-gravity environment.
The room will apparently be able to make gravity “disappear” “for as long as you want,” Li Ruilin, a geotechnical engineer at the China University of Mining and Technology, told the newspaper.
Magnets that levitate frogs
The simulated environment, which will be made up of rocks and dust like that of the Moon, would have been inspired by previous research by Russian physicist Andrew Geim who used magnets to levitate a frog, according to the Chinese medium.
A low-G environment will be built in Xuzhou, Jiangsu to simulate moon gravity, inspired by the minor stuff being levitated by strong magnetic field. Source: Chief Scientist Li Ruilin from China University of Mining and Technology. https://t.co/eYvMPG8OB5 pic.twitter.com/eVq85xo8pQ
— CNSA Watcher (@CNSAWatcher) January 13, 2022
The experiment earned Geim the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics, a satirical award given to research unusual scientific experiments.
“Some experiments, like crash tests, only need a few seconds (in the simulator),” Li explained. “But others, like creep tests, can take several days,” he added.
Testing equipment and tools in a lunar environment
Although the 85 centimeters in diameter won’t be enough to fit an aspiring astronaut, it will be big enough for researchers to test certain equipment and tools to see how they react to the lunar environment, which could avoid costly mistakes.
“Magnetic levitation is certainly not the same as antigravity, but there are a variety of situations where mimicking microgravity using magnetic fields could be invaluable in expecting the unexpected in space research,” he told the publication.
China has set itself the goal of sending astronauts to the Moon in 2030 and establish a base on it, in a joint project with Russia, by the end of this decade.
With information from DW.
2030
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