Scientists in China have built an artificial moon that simulates gravity on the lunar surface to help them prepare for future space exploration missions. It also stimulates the lunar landscape, complete with rocks and dust with the same mass as those found on the moon.
At present, a low gravity environment is simulated on Earth via flying in an aircraft that enters a free fall the climbing back up or falling from a drop tower, which only lasts for a few minutes. But the artificial moon, based in Xuzhou in the Jiangsu province of China, was designed to "make the gravity disappear" for as long as they wanted.
Li Xianhua, China Academy of Sciences (CAS) academician and Institute of Geology and Geophysics researcher, speaks during a press conference in Beijing on October 19, 2021, after analysis of the first lunar rocks to be brought back to earth in decades showed the Moon was volcanically active more recently than previously thought.
China's Artificial Moon Designed From A Floating Frog Experiment
The gravity on the lunar surface is only one-sixth of the gravity on Earth. Scientists took inspiration from the floating frog experiment to simulate it. According to Live Science, Ig Nobel Prize 2000 winner Andre Geim, a physicist at the University of Manchester, devised an experiment that made a frog float using a magnet.
Li Ruilin, the lead scientist of the project from the China University of Mining and Technology, said that magnetic levitation helps them test experiments that could either take a few seconds or several days to complete.
Geim told South China Morning Post that he was pleased to see his experiments are being used in making technologies to aid space exploration but noted that magnetic levitation is not similar to antigravity. However, some situations where simulating microgravity using a magnetic field could significantly help.
China plans to send astronauts to the lunar surface by 2030 and set up a base in collaboration with Russia. The artificial moon is expected to play a significant role in future lunar missions to help scientists plan exercises and prepare for building in a low gravity environment.
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How Does the Artificial Moon Works?
MailOnline reported that the artificial moon uses very strong magnetic fields to levitate a 2ft room in a vacuum chamber where the air is not present. The effect is called diamagnetic levitation in which an external magnetic field is applied to atoms.
The electrons in the atoms will change their motion to produce their own magnetic field opposite to the applied magnetic field that could create repulsion. Then, the atoms will grow powerful enough to overcome gravity, which levitates objects into the air.
Furthermore, they have also simulated the lunar environment inside the room by putting lunar soil and Moon rocks. It will make the testing of technologies more realistic since dust and rocks on the lunar surface and Earth behave differently.
Li added that the artificial moon could also be used to know whether 3D printing is possible on the moon before sending expensive heavy equipment to the lunar surface. These technologies are important in supporting their goal of building structures and making human settlements permanent.
More so, it will make the task of finding water on the moon easier because the artificial moon could give them crucial clues as to where to look for it. But they still need to create several technologies to counter magnetic forces that lift the simulated room because it is too strong and could tear apart the wires and metallic components required for the vacuum chamber.
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