China launches world's most powerful supergravity machine

The world's most advanced supergravity machine, capable of generating forces thousands of times stronger than the gravitational force at Earth's surface, has gone into operation in China.

Once fully operational, the Centrifugal Interdisciplinary and Supergravity Experiment Facility (CHIEF) will provide a scientific platform with the world's most powerful supergravity centrifuge, MSN reported on November 17. The project marks a step forward in advancing scientists' understanding of events such as mountain formation and dam collapse disasters. The preliminary completion of the project is a milestone in the field of supergravity research, according to a statement from the government of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province in eastern China. The first phase of delivery is scheduled to take place this year.

The Centrifugal Supergravity and Interdisciplinary Experiment Facility (CHIEF) in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. (Photo: Ifeng)

The project was approved in 2018 by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Construction began in 2020, overseen by a team of scientists from Zhejiang University. CHIEF consists of three supergravity centrifuges, which spin the chamber so rapidly that liquids and heavier solids are pushed to the outer edges or bottom. The first centrifuge looks like two giant arms holding two baskets containing experimental modules. Installation of the other two centrifuges is underway.

Earth's gravity is expressed as 1g and anything greater than 1g is called hypergravity . When an astronaut returns to Earth in a spacecraft, he or she will experience hypergravity of 4g, which is equivalent to 4 times their body weight. The hypergravity centrifuge is a revolutionary research tool because of its ability to create extreme physical conditions that do not exist in everyday environments.

In 2019, Zhejiang University proposed and detailed the design of CHIEF, according to Chen Yunmin, a professor at the school. Such a facility could 'compress' time and space, allowing for the study of many complex physical problems and serve a variety of engineering purposes. For example, scientists could observe the circulation of pollutants in nature over tens of thousands of years, Chen said.

The world's leading microgravity facility, developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, has a capacity of about 1,200 gt (gravity acceleration × tons). The machine under construction in Hangzhou has a total capacity of 1,900 gt. The project is designed to house six microgravity test chambers, each focusing on a specific research area such as slope and dam engineering, seismic geoengineering, deep-sea engineering, environment, geological processes and materials processing.

For example, deep-sea engineering such as scientific exploration could bring fossil fuels closer to reality. Combustible ices are frozen fossil fuels found in the seafloor and permafrost, composed of water and gas, usually methane. They are abundant, widely distributed, and provide clean fuel, making them one of the most promising alternative energy sources of the future. Microgravity experiments could replicate the extraction process and simulate different deep-sea mining methods, allowing for optimized yields and reduced risks.

CHIEF is among the 10 national key science and technology infrastructures built in China during 2016-2020 at a cost of more than US$276.5 million.