At present, many major breakthroughs have been made in space science and technology, but some designs are still at the level of the middle of last century for various reasons, such as rocket propulsion technology. Up to now, rocket propulsion is still the most conventional chemical propellant. However, the efficiency of chemical fuel is limited and it must occupy a lot of space, which hinders the development of other rocket technologies.

In traditional rockets, chemical propellants react by mixing and then generate heat to expand, and the gas in the combustion chamber is ejected from the tail to form thrust. The principle of rocket propulsion is to use this reaction. However, the thrust generated by chemical propellants needs to consider the weight and volume of these fuels in addition to propelling rockets. This also limits the performance of the rocket because the fuel that can be carried is limited.

Therefore, as long as chemical fuel is used, the rocket will not go too far and will not break through the speed limit. So, is there any new way to solve the problem of traditional rocket propulsion? Electric propulsion technology is a solution, which can achieve higher performance than chemical fuel by using electric field and charged particles. However, as mentioned above, these methods are all ideas of the 1950s and 1960s, and little new progress has been made so far.

In recent years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States has set up related research projects to propose new methods to solve this problem. Scientists have turned their attention to the Mach effect in mechanics: when an object accelerates, its mass will change slightly, which can form a propulsion effect, that is, using the inertia principle to achieve the goal of breaking through the traditional rocket speed.

/kloc-ernst mach, an Austrian physicist in the 20th century, devoted his life to the research of experimental physics and philosophy. Mach effect, Mach wave and Mach angle, which are widely used in aerodynamics, were first studied by Mach and later named and developed in his name. Today's theoretical physicists want to apply Mach effect to new fields.

The specific operation is not complicated. Simply put, the piezoelectric ceramic plate expands periodically under the action of alternating voltage. When it expands or contracts, the internal acceleration will make its mass lighter or heavier, and the change of inertia will make the center of mass of the system move in one direction, forming a propulsion force. With the support of this theory, researchers set out to design propellers. First, they carried out verification experiments through a device called "Mach effect gravity auxiliary driver".

Although this propeller concept has made some substantial achievements, it is still only a possible guess. In fact, scientists and researchers don't have enough theories to reasonably explain this technology. At present, this technology needs more experimental data to prove its feasibility. One of the difficulties in proof is to be able to confirm that this effect is real, not the interference caused by other physical effects.

On the other hand, whether it is driven by laser, artificially made antimatter, or with the help of nuclear energy, researchers need to find the best way to make this concept a technology that can really be applied in space, otherwise these studies will not be of practical value. At present, researchers can only use this technology to create a small thrust, which is still a long way from the real realization of the rocket.

In any case, this theory gives a new direction to the development of rocket propulsion technology. Perhaps this will also be the first step for mankind to move further into the universe in the future.