It’s very, very likely that one of Elon Musk’s giant SpaceX rockets is going to hit the moon. That’s right. Our beloved moon is going to be smashed into by the property of one of the world’s richest – and most annoying – men.
So, how did it come to this? Well, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster was launched in 2015, with the aim of sending the Deep Space Climate Observatory – a kind of observation satellite – into space. After completing the mission, Falcon 9 ran out of fuel and so it remained in space, orbiting the Earth in ‘high orbit’.
Seven years later, Falcon 9 is set to crash into the moon. It is currently travelling at around 5,000 miles per hour, and the collision is likely to take place on March 4. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell told BBC News that it will be the first known uncontrolled rocket collision with the moon.
But before you ask, no, Falcon 9 won’t blow it up. Don’t be silly. Seeing as it weighs four tonnes, however, the rocket will leave a pretty sizeable crater and rather a lot of debris. We’re unlikely to actually see the impact or explosion, as the rocket is set to crash into the moon’s far (or ‘dark’) side – i.e. the side facing away from Earth at that moment in time.
To be honest, there’s something unsurprising about Elon Musk being the face of all this. No stranger to controversy, Musk is well known for his ‘edgelord’ (read: idiotic) Twitter takes and strange cult adoration by legions of ‘weird nerds’. That being said, Musk’s advancements in electric vehicle technology and renewable energy are undeniably interesting. You take the good with the bad, we guess.
Did you see that a new film studio is being built in space?