It suffered from short-circuits, faulty radio and power systems, an unreliable tape-recorder, a sticky camera platform, and the loss of much of the gas that supplied its stabilising thrusters a problem overcome by repositioning its solar panels and main antenna so that they acted as solar sails, stabilising the probe via the gentle pressure of sunlight.
"Each meteorite is a time capsule and space probe recording the history of our solar system from 4.5 billion years ago, " said Caroline Smith, curator of meteorites at London's Natural History Museum.
Such a probe would be able to provide an hour's more warning of solar storms, which can disrupt electricity grids and cause other nasty side-effects on earth.