China turns on hypergravity machine to ‘compress’ time and space

Revolutionary research tool will dial up gravity to mimic natural events and help to tap future energy reserves, solve engineering puzzles

Reading Time:3 minutes

The Centrifugal Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Experiment Facility (CHIEF), located in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, is expected to help scientists solve a vast array of engineering challenges. Photo: ifeng

Published: 10:00pm, 17 Nov 2024Updated: 11:20pm, 17 Nov 2024

The world’s most advanced hypergravity machine – capable of generating forces thousands of times greater than Earth’s surface gravity – has been switched on in China, a step that scientists say will advance their understanding of events like the rise of mountains, or catastrophes such as dam collapses.

Once fully operational, the Centrifugal Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Experiment Facility (CHIEF) will offer a multidisciplinary science platform with the world’s largest hypergravity centrifuge, helping to solve perplexing engineering problems in several fields.

The project’s preliminary completion is a milestone in the field of hypergravity research, according to a news release on Monday by the government of Hangzhou, the capital of eastern China’s Zhejiang province, where the facility is located.

“As planned, the first phase of commissioning will take place this year,” it said in a release.

Diagram showing the scale of one of CHIEF’s three centrifuges. Image: ifeng

The project was given the green light in 2018 by China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Construction began in 2020, under the supervision of scientists from Zhejiang University.