Colin Pillinger (1943–2014)

When reading about the billions spent on these mars probes like Perseverance, including other projects that are delayed and overbudget, it does put into focus the achievement of the Beagle 2 project nearly 20 years ago led by Colin Pillinger. Its price was a fraction of this, was essentially banged together by various university departments, and had zero contingency as it was effectively a piece of retro engineering made to fit into a probe that had already been designed. It was a bit zany, such as the model being explained on Blue Peter. It was assumed to have crashed on Mars and was written off as a 'failure' by a caustic media who didn’t seem to understand that in science if something doesn’t work you learn and go again. The USA and USSR took numerous attempts each to land. Pillinger died in 2014, and in 2015 it emerged from photographs that Beagle 2 DID land safely, it appears to have unfurled all but one solar panel, the one that shielded the antenna and therefore prevented contact being made. It was a ballhair away from being an absolutely stunning achievement. In fact it was a stunning achievement, one that gets overlooked in our binary, zero-sum world of winners or losers. However when comparing costs remember that you need to compare like with like, and in particular be careful not to compare the cost of a lander with the cost of a lander + delivery system.

Next time the so-called Space Exploration critics manage to send a piece of scientific equipment tens of millions of miles through space, and land it exactly where you expected it to land, let me know. In terms of what was achieved and what was learned, it was a huge success, and contributed enormously to the advance of space exploration. It's only a failure by your limited ability to see beyond the obvious. Physics, astrophysics and space exploration advance just as much from what you would call 'failures' as they do from what you would call 'successes'. It's just that people like you can only think in absolute terms about something much more subtle.

Shit does happen you know: the first spacewalk almost ended in disaster when Alexey Leonov's spacesuit inflated and he could not fit through the hatch of his spacecraft. With space you keep on trying and refine, refine, refine. For a first attempt the project did really well.

What a shame Colin Pillinger didn't live to know his probe survived and on top of that his idea was cheap as chips.,,… (más)