Asteroid pod in Japan

Thousands of people will have a chance in Tokyo exhibition to see the heat-proof pod, which had travelled in space with the unmanned craft for seven years which was hoped to have brought asteroid dust to Earth. The capsule, which journeyed billions of kilometres (miles), was fired back to Earth in June. Technical problems had plagued the Hayabusa, which at one stage spun out of control and lost contact with JAXA for seven weeks, delaying the mission for three years until the asteroid and Earth re-aligned. When it finally latched onto the potato-shaped Itokawa asteroid, a pellet-firing system designed to stir up dust malfunctioned, leaving it unclear how much material the probe was able to gather. Scientists hope any dust samples from the ancient asteroid in the capsule could help reveal secrets about the origins of the solar system. The space agency found "minute particles" of what it hopes is asteroid dust in the capsule, but it is expected to take months to get the final results of the analysis. The Hayabusa project has generated great excitement in Japan.