A team of scientists from McGill University and the Tau Zero Foundation presented a project to accelerate spacecraft during the takeoff stage. The results of the work were published in the journal Frontiers in Space Technology.

The development provides for the possibility of creating and using dynamic floating sails to power the spacecraft. It is inspired by the natural flight mechanisms of birds that can cross air masses moving at different speeds.

The application of this concept to spaceflight involves the creation of a vehicle capable of using the shock wave that occurs in turbulent zones of stellar winds. However, to get to a far point, for example, to the edge of the solar system, a different kind of energy is required.

Related materials:We are not your brothersWhat will contact with an alien mind turn out for humanity? Scientists answer April 25, 2021 The end of aliens. Where do the mysterious signals from space come from and why extraterrestrial civilizations do not exist March 1, 2020

The researchers suggest that the optimal solution would be a directional plasma wave antenna. The synthesis of these two technologies will help to reach distant objects, such as Jupiter, in months, not years.

In November, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev, as part of tests on the ISS, printed a part on a Russian-made 3D printer.