Colin Pillinger's guest appearances

Colin Pillinger

BBC Inside Science

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

The Life Scientific

What Makes Us Human

Mary Beard

Mary Portas

Gwen Adshead

Alan Johnson

Michael Rosen

Henry Marsh

Rory Stewart

Paul McKenna

Nick Clegg

Joan Bakewell

Steven Pinker

David Starkey

Frank Gardner

Shami Chakrabarti

Athene Donald

OwlTail

Human beings are nosey parkers. Planetary scientist Prof Colin Pillinger ponders human curiosity, martian life and living with MS.

Prof Colin Pillinger

On this day eight years ago, planetary scientist Colin Pillinger was still hopeful that the Beagle 2 Lander that he had spent years designing, building and publicising (with the help of Blur and Damien Hirst) might yet be found somewhere on the surface of Mars. But, as more time passed, it became clear that The Beagle 2 Lander would be forever lost in space. Jim al -Khalili talks to Colin Pillinger about studying moon rock and meteorites from Mars whilst running a successful dairy farm; broken space dreams and why, even if a space project fails, useful scientific lessons can still be learned.

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 RayBook: Journey into Space by Charles ChiltonLuxury: A picture of the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

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.

Professor Colin Pillinger