It was earlier this year that NASA, the United States space agency, tapped the help of SpaceX to deflect asteroids that might be in a collision course with the earth. Now, Elon Musk, the SpaceX founder, has called the mission 'Armageddon', and it has made many space experts believe that something sinister is going to happen.
Elon Musk made the 'Armageddon' remarks on his Twitter page, as he shared his excitement to carry out the mission for the United States space agency. Even though Elon Musk tried to make a cinematic tone to his tweet, it has prompted many people to think that the real situation is more serious than it sounds.
NASA is now busy developing their planetary defense weapon aimed at deflecting approaching asteroids. This project is called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) and a few months back, the space agency had roped in SpaceX to collaborate in the mission.
Under the DART project, NASA will try to deflect asteroids when they are already 6.8 million miles away from the earth. Initially, NASA will test this weapon on an incoming pair of asteroids known as Didymos. The space agency believes that hitting these asteroids with a large spacecraft will destabilize the original trajectory of space bodies, and thus earth can be saved from a probable collision that could cause catastrophic results.
Interestingly, a few weeks back, Elon Musk had claimed that no current technology or weapon on the earth is capable to protect the planet from potential asteroid hits. The South African billionaire made these remarks on Twitter when one of his followers asked whether asteroid Apophis will hit the planet in 2029. It should be noted that asteroid Apophis will pass within just 19,000 miles during its close flyby, and several space experts believe that this asteroid will collide with the earth causing huge devastation in the area of impact.
