Japan announced it has successfully test fired a space cannon specifically meant to shatter asteroids. The cannon, built by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), has been cleared for mission take-off in 2014.

The mission however does not aim to save the world from any doomsday space attack in the future. Japanese scientists want to blast asteroids to gather soil and other debris which they can use as they study the solar system's early beginnings.

An artist rendering from World View Enterprises, Inc. released on October 22, 2013, shows a six-passenger, two-pilot pressurized capsule in a near-space balloon-launched ride that is being designed to fly in Earth's stratosphere, about 19 miles (30 kim) above the planet's surface. Hoping to cash in on a growing appetite for adventure, an Arizona startup has unveiled plans for a balloon ride to the stratosphere, offering passengers about two hours of space-like views from 19 miles (30 km) above Earth. Privately owned World View, an offshoot of Paragon Space Development Corp., plans to start selling tickets at $75,000 per person within a few months, said Chairwoman and President Jane Poynter. The company expects to begin flight tests of a demonstration vehicle this year in Arizona and could be flying passengers within three years, Poynter said. REUTERS/World View Enterprises, Inc./Handout via Reuters

JAXA is specifically targeting asteroid 1999 JU3, a 1,000-yard-wide asteroid currently orbiting between Earth and Mars, in 2018 for this mission.

The cannon will be placed aboard the Hayabusa-2 probe. The latter has been scheduled for a 2014 launch. It will engage with the asteroid four years later.

"An artificial crater that can be created by the device is expected to be a small one, a few meters in diameter, but ... by acquiring samples from the surface that is exposed by the collision, we can get fresh samples that are less weathered by the space environment or heat," JAXA said in a statement.

JAXA's plan includes shooting an 8-kilogramme projectile at the asteroid from the cannon, after which Hayabusa-2 will then land on the asteroid. After collecting samples of debris, Hayabusa-2 will then return to Earth, along with the samples.

The timeline for this specific mission will run for two years.

The scheduled itinerary for the probe is "to reach the asteroid, [1999 JU3], in the middle of 2018, stay there about one and half years, depart from the asteroid to return to the earth at the end of 2019, and come back to the earth at the end of 2020."

Video Source: Youtube/ World News Agenda

"The endeavor has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of pristine materials essential to understanding the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life," JAXA said.

"It can provide important information needed to develop strategies to protect the Earth from potential hazards," the agency added. "Moreover, robotic sampling missions to primitive bodies will be pathfinders for ... human missions that might use asteroid resources to facilitate human exploration and the development of space."