With a Japanese space mission planned to bring asteroid samples back to Earth and drop them on Australia, the government down under is studying what's up in regards to possible contamination and quarantine procedures that might be needed.

Biosecurity Australia, a group within that the country's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, is developing quarantine protocols for an exotic import from space.

Meanwhile, now being readied for launch is the Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft-C, or MUSES-C for short. The project is under the wing of Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS).

The proposed landing site for the precious asteroid pickings is Woomera, in South Australia.

Asteroids are considered time capsules, retaining clues and insight into the early formative stages of our solar system. By hauling back the goods from such bodies, scientists can intensively study the celestial stuff using an array of laboratory gear.

Biosecurity Australia will take part in a government review of landing asteroid samples on its soil, an assessment involving Environment Australia and the country's Department of Defense.

"Although the risk of the asteroid sample containing any living entity is likely to be negligible, quarantine procedures may still be necessary," said Peter Hewitt, Biosecurity Australia's principal veterinary officer. "This is to safeguard against the unknown, yet remote, possibility of life forms such as micro-organisms that could be a threat to human, animal and plant health, and the natural environment," he explained in a Biosecurity Australia newsletter.

Once launched, Japan's MUSES-C is targeted to rendezvous in mid-2005 with asteroid 1998 SF36. The orbit of that mini-world crosses that of Earth, making it relatively easy for the space probe to reach the asteroid, snag some samples, then high-tail it back to Earth.

After many tests and designs, ISAS engineers have come up with a MUSES-C sampling device.

The spacecraft will carry a horn that will be brought up to the surface of 1998 SF36 as MUSES-C makes a close approach to the asteroid. A small pyrotechnic charge will then fire a bullet into the surface and fragments of the impact will be captured by the horn and funneled into a sample container.

Nobody knows for sure the physical make-up of the targeted asteroid. Perhaps a gram or more of sample surface material will be collected.

MUSES-C will use a solar electric propulsion system on its four-year round-trip flight. Other challenging aspects of the sample collecting mission include autonomous navigation and guidance for approach, rendezvous and landing on the asteroid; snagging and storing the samples in a capsule and sealing it; and having the return capsule survive a blistering reentry through the Earth's atmosphere, then parachute to a touchdown.

Biosecurity Australia's Hewitt said that any quarantine procedures established would draw heavily from earlier work done in America. The U.S. National Research Council's Space Studies Board has completed a detailed risk analysis of sample returns from planetary satellites and small bodies within the Solar System, he said.