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ChinaScience

China has built an artificial moon that simulates low-gravity conditions on Earth

  • It is said to be the first of its kind and could play a key role in the country’s future lunar missions
  • Landscape is supported by a magnetic field and was inspired by experiments to levitate a frog

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The moon simulator could provide valuable research for China’s lunar exploration activities. Photo: AFP
Stephen Chen

China has built a research facility that simulates the low-gravity environment on the moon – and it was inspired by experiments using magnets to levitate a frog.

The facility could provide valuable research for China’s lunar exploration activities, according to scientists involved in the project. Located in the eastern city of Xuzhou, in Jiangsu province, the simulator is expected to be officially launched in the coming months.

Lead scientist Li Ruilin, from the China University of Mining and Technology, said it was the “first of its kind in the world” and would take lunar simulation to a whole new level.

The simulator can make gravity “disappear”, Li said in an interview on Tuesday. While low gravity can be achieved in an aircraft or a drop tower, it is momentary. Li said in the simulator that effect can “last as long as you want”.

At its heart is a vacuum chamber that houses a mini “moon” measuring 60cm (about 2 feet) in diameter. The artificial lunar landscape is made up of rocks and dust that are as light as those on the moon – where gravity is about one-sixth as powerful as the gravity on Earth – partly because they are supported by a magnetic field.

When the field is strong enough it can magnetise and levitate things – from a living frog to a chestnut – against the gravitational force.

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