Plaques unveiled across the UK celebrate Beagle 2, Britain’s first spacecraft to reach another planet, after a maverick scientist used Britpop bands, pop stars, and supermarket stunts to fund and launch the historic 2003 Mars mission.
Professor Colin Pillinger masterminded the project. His distinctive mutton-chop sideburns, West Country accent, and infectious enthusiasm won over politicians, pop stars, and the public for an impossible ambition.
From Antarctic Meteorites to Mars
Pillinger was born in Kingswood near Bristol, completed his degree at Swansea University, and gained international recognition for his lunar research. He later moved to Cambridge University to analyse meteorites found in Antarctica that were believed to have originated from Mars. In the decade of the 1980s, he helped establish the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute based at The Open University in Milton Keynes. It was at the Milton Keynes institution that he conceived the idea of sending a lander directly to the red planet to study it for signs of life. His wife named the spacecraft Beagle 2.
Space exploration was largely dominated by international superpowers and agencies such as NASA, which commanded vast funding. With Britain lacking a dedicated space agency, Pillinger proposed that Beagle 2 hitch a ride aboard Mars Express, a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft already scheduled for travel. Upon receiving approval for the transport in 1999, the mission received no assurances from the ESA regarding financial backing or assistance.
Pillinger Used Unconventional Tactics to Attract Financial Backing
Pillinger turned to unconventional promotional tactics to capture the public imagination and attract financial backing. Pallab Ghosh, the BBC’s science correspondent, recalled initial scepticism upon meeting a man in Milton Keynes sending a spaceship to Mars, particularly after Pillinger placed a model on the lawn that did not look much like a spacecraft. On another occasion, Pillinger loaded a Beagle 2 replica into a supermarket trolley and wheeled it around The Open University’s car park to demonstrate its compact size to cameras. The footage was later ridiculed on Have I Got News for You
, reaching an even wider audience.
Pillinger persuaded the Britpop band Blur to compose a distinctive call-sign for Beagle 2 to transmit to Earth after landing. A colourful spot painting was produced by artist Damien Hirst to function as a color-calibration tool for the exploratory vehicle’s built-in camera. Through these efforts, the project secured financial backing from the UK government, academic institutions, industrial contractors, and private sponsors, and was reportedly built for about £50m.
Beagle 2 Failed to Signal After Martian Landing
Mars Express launched on 2 June 2003 with Beagle 2 aboard, scheduled to reach Mars on Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, excited scientists and celebrities gathered at The Open University’s London headquarters, where members of Blur drank mulled wine and singer Myleene Klass handed out jelly babies while awaiting confirmation of a safe landing. The signal never arrived.
Pillinger and his team believed the lander had descended too quickly after being caught out by Martian atmospheric conditions. Official inquiries by the government and ESA criticised the project’s finances and management structure, and the ESA rejected Pillinger’s proposed successor, Beagle 3, in 2004.
Pillinger died in May 2014 after suffering a brain haemorrhage and falling into a coma, believing the mission had failed. Eight months later, high-resolution images captured by NASA revealed the largely intact spacecraft sitting in the red dust just 5km from its intended landing site. The images confirmed that its parachutes and cushioning airbags had deployed as planned, but its petal-like solar panels had failed to open fully, trapping the antenna and preventing communication.
My dad always spoke of himself as being the frontman to the band that was behind this. It wasn’t just a one-man project. It was a huge number of people working across different institutions coming together to make it happen.
Nic Pillinger
