Where are they now ? No 236 Mad Prof behind Beagle 2 space probe

Prof Colin Pillinger , the be-whiskered and bewildered Open University Professor who burst upon our Yuletide TV news screens 3 years ago trundling a copy of the European Beagle space probe through the streets in a supermarket trolley. This suburban expedition was to demonstrate some scientific principle (not that you could buy one at Sainsbury's) I forget which , and I am sure the made professor has forgotten also.

Prof. Colin Pillinger, who is/was (?) the Head of Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute, at the UK's Open University also ran a course S198 - "Exploring Mars: Beagle 2 and the search for life" which must have been a trifle anti-climactic for it's participants - it was fully booked.

An Internal 6 month investigation could not identify failure but .. a leading theory (and entirely unproveable ) is that a pocket of unusually thin air, possibly caused by turbulent dust storms, disrupted the descent and landing systems. ...as a result Beagle 2’s parachutes and cushioning airbags may have been deployed too late, causing the craft to crash.

Several other potential system malfunctions could not be eliminated, including electronic glitches, a gasbag puncture, the failure of Beagle 2 to deploy its instruments, damage to the heat shield, and a broken communications antenna.

Undaunted, the mad professor wrote to NASA to ask if they could piggyback the Beagle probe on their Mars lander. He had written a letter to senior NASA officials and spoken to the agency’s chief of space exploration, Admiral Craig Steidle.

Speaking at the launch of this report over 2 years ago he said "I haven’t had an answer from the top echelons of NASA. If I don’t get an answer soon, I’ll ring them up and say are you taking me seriously?"

It appears they didn't.

The Beagle 2 website's last posting ( relic of this preporterously underfunded adventure) is dated 26-May-04 8:30 GMT and is a Statement from Prof Colin Pillinger following the ESA/BNSC Inquiry into the fate of Beagle 2 during which he ...."He asked Lord Sainsbury to ensure that money became available for a reflight from the Government review of science spending and to give the country a lasting legacy in the form of a British Space Agency."

Since then there appears to have been silence from the mad professor....however the BBC reported Monday, 29 November, 2004 that NASA scientist Dr Everett Gibson has named Asteroid 15614 after Colin PIllinger ... and said memorably "A piece of Professor Pillinger now moves between Mars and Jupiter." Professor Pillinger is reported to have said, with a touch of whimsy and not a little sadness : "It's nice to know something named after me will be existing for the next billion years."