text: In the spring of 1967 , Professor Paul Sandorff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave his students in a systems engineering class the task to devise a plan to destroy Icarus in the case that it was on a collision course with Earth .
simplified: In 1967 , Professor Paul Sandorff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave his students the task to make a plan to destroy Icarus in the case that it may be hitting Earth .