EPQ last-minute questions

m'kay, 3 questions:
1) i have to be honest: I've done poorly on my epq and i probably will fail considering i had to do majority of the writing in literally the last week before submiting. I wanted to give up earlier on but i didn't since i thought i could do it. Turns out not and i now wish i just gave up. Now i pretty much don't give a flip about what grade i get anymore; but should i? I mean, it's just an epq and nothing major like my actual a-level courses. Should i care and try do my absolute best in the little time i have or can i give up, just do a bare minimum and submit it like that.
2) if i should care, is 1000-3000 words acceptable for a dissertation without an artefact? I've so far written 1143 words and i plan to atleast attain the range i stated above since i don't think i'd be able to reach 5000 words.
3) if i don't care and get a bad grade, will universities put me down considering it? I have to take into consideration that it would look very bad on my ucas application. I want to do astronomy at uni which i'm pretty sure might involve dissertation writing but wouldn't the bad grade put them off since they'd probably think that i lack this essential skill?
Thanks.

how did it go?!