China’s space program has gained enough attention in recent months. As Beijing prepares to fully activate its space station and plans to build a joint lunar base with Russia, China claims to have built a research facility that simulates low-gravity conditions on the moon.
The research facility was reportedly inspired by frog levitation experiments using magnets. According to scientists involved in the project, this could provide valuable research for China’s lunar exploration efforts.
The simulator, located in Xuzhou, a city in eastern Jiangsu province, is expected to open in the next few months.
The announcement comes after China claimed its Chang’e 5 lunar probe had found live evidence of water on the lunar surface. Chang’e 5 is China’s fifth lunar exploration mission and the first sample return mission. The findings will provide more clues for the upcoming Chang’e-6 and Chang’e-7 missions in the future.
Li Ruilin, chief scientist from China University of Mining and Technology, said it was “the first of its kind in the world” and would take lunar simulations to a new level. The simulator could make gravity “disappear,” Lee said in a Jan. 11 interview. Low gravity can be achieved in airplanes or drop towers, but for very short periods of time. In the simulator, however, Lee said the effect could last “for as long as you want.”
In 2018, Chinese state media reported that China planned to launch its own “artificial moon” by 2020 to replace street lights and reduce electricity costs in urban areas. Chengdu, a city in southwestern Sichuan province, is developing a “lighting satellite,” which China Daily later reported would shine at the same time as the real moon, but eight times as brightly. It should be a mirror orbiting Chengdu at an altitude of 500 kilometers.
However, this new “artificial moon” offers the same gravitational pull as a real moon, orchestrated by scientists using magnetic fields.
Complete News Source : eurasiantimes
