Professor Colin Pillinger

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2009

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway is the scientist Professor Colin Pillinger. A world-class planetary scientist, his first job was for NASA, analysing the lunar samples brought back by Apollo 11. He is best known, though, for being the public face of Beagle 2, the daring mission to search for life on Mars. Although Beagle 2 was unsuccessful, he is adamant that the mission was not a failure. Now it is hoped that the technology developed for the mission to Mars can be used to diagnose TB faster than has ever been possible before.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: As Time Goes By by Johnnie Ray Book: Journey into Space by Charles Chilton Luxury: A picture of the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela,
0:22.4	Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey,
0:24.7	history's youngest heroes with me, Nicola Cochlin.
0:27.8	Listen on BBC Sounds. My castaway this week is Professor Colin Pillinger, a world-class planetary scientist, his daring mission to search for life on Mars with Beagle 2,
0:56.7	catapulted him to public prominence. In case you're wondering, yes, he is the man from Bristol with the mutton shop sideburns.
1:03.8	Unearthing the mysteries of the red planet is, however, only half his story.
1:08.4	His first job was for NASA, for the Apollo 11 space mission. These days,
1:13.5	he's professor of planetary science at the Open University and is also on the brink of introducing
1:18.4	a revolutionary technique for the early detection of TB. Of his passion for opening science up to the man in
1:25.2	the street, he says, I'm not aiming at the next Stephen Hawking.
1:29.5	I'm aiming for the kid who sits at the back of the class.
1:32.2	That's the sort of kid I was.
1:34.8	So, Colin Pillinger, it was early Christmas morning, 2003.
1:40.4	You must have felt like a kid again yourself, wound up,
1:43.3	waiting for maybe the biggest and best gift of all.
1:47.3	But it was a gift that never came.
1:51.1	There was an all-night vigil.
1:54.0	We sat in a room waiting for the signal from Nata.
1:59.0	So I was on a live telephone to a control centre in California.
2:05.1	And a voice came on and said, I'm sorry, there's no data for you.
2:09.4	And this was no data from Beagle 2 that was supposed to be sending out the signal to say,
2:14.3	I'm here, I've landed.
	...

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