The drive behind Beagle 2: Prof. Colin Pillinger CBE

It is with a sad heart that this morning I read about the passing of the driving force behind the British Beagle 2 Mars Lander Professor Colin Pillinger CBE from a brain haemorrhage which caused him to enter a deep coma and subsequently pass away.

Prof. Pillinger reached every man, woman and child in the United Kingdom with his interest in space and Mars more than anything else. The below extract highlights his reach far better than I:

On the publication of his biography in 2010, My Life On Mars, he recalled an event that made him realise that the lost probe would be his legacy.

"I pulled into the OU car park and there was this huge lorry, a guy delivering a load of bricks - a builder, obviously,"

"I looked at this guy and I thought 'he's going to take a while', so I dashed in front of him in my car to get into the parking space. Well, the door opened on the lorry and this huge man got out - you could eat your dinner off his hands - and he started walking towards the car. And I thought, 'Bloody hell, I'm going to get thumped'.

"Well, he stuffed this huge paw through the window and said, 'You're the man who launched Beagle-2, aren't you? I want to shake your hand, mate'. And that to me says everything. There's nobody in the UK I didn't reach."

For more information I would direct you towards the BBC News website.

My thoughts are with his wife, children and extended family at this time.

Paul Borrow-Longain