Nonetheless, NASA scientists are optimistic they can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by salvaging and analyzing the precious solar dust brought back by Genesis' damaged scientific canister.

The probe crashed on re-entry in the Utah desert Wednesday after its parachute failed to open, after a three-year mission that scientists had hoped would yield clues to the origin of the solar system.

The critical canister was rushed to a cleanroom at the US Army Dugway Proving Ground near the crash site. Scientists said 48 hours would be needed to determine if the 10 to 20 micrograms (10-20 millionths of a gram) of solar dust, first cosmic material ever returned to Earth from beyond the moon, was still useable.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials were optimistic that it was.

"Exploration of the heavens is not an easy task," said NASA chief Sean O'Keefe. "The spacecraft was designed in a way to give us the best chance at salvaging the valuable science payload should we suffer a landing like the one we witnessed."

"The canister has been ripped open," said David Lindstrom, Genesis Program scientist. "There is a six-inch gap between the top and the bottom."

But Lindstrom added, "We are very hopeful of getting some material. The sample canister is broad open, some of its content came out. We have been lucky, it's only dirt and slightly sticky mud.

"Overall, the science community is optimistic because the particles are implanted within the collectors," he said.

At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the core of NASA's engineering genius, morale was low after the 260-million-dollar mission's disastrous landing.

Until re-entry, the Genesis mission had gone picture-perfect, even through its most complex phases. NASA engineers suspect batteries as the culprit that failed to activate the parachute that should have braked descent.

Helicopters ready to snag the parachute with sky hooks to further slow descent hovered helplessly as Genesis plunged head-long into the Utah desert at 310 kilometers (193 miles) per hour.

NASA is keeping its fingers crossed lest the same fate befall the Stardust mission, whose capsule is due to return to Earth in January 2006 with samples of comet dust collected early this year. Stardust utilizes the same parachute re-entry system as Genesis.

The fate of the Genesis mission risks posing a public relations nightmare for NASA, which is trying to restart the space shuttle program, having met only about one-third of the recommendations of the commission that investigated the destruction of the shuttle Columbia.

Shuttle flights have been grounded since February 2003.

Congress, already skeptical of the far-reaching goals for exploration of the moon and planets set by President George W. Bush, is expected to cast a harsh eye on shuttle modifications when it determines whether the program is truly ready to resume on schedule next March.

Wednesday's crash came only days after NASA's Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida, sustained major damage at the hands of Hurricane Frances, whose winds ripped some 820 panels from the shuttle's Vehicle Assembly Building.

But NASA has also had some recent successes. The Opportunity and Spirit rovers, which landed on Mars in January in search of signs of past life, have sent back stunning images from the Red Planet, including evidence that water once existed there.

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