Professor Colin Pillinger, the eminent planetary scientist, has died at the age of 70. He had been battling multiple sclerosis since 2005, and suffered a brain haemorrhage at his home in Cambridge. He died in Addenbrooke’s Hospital.

Pillinger, who was a Senior Research Associate at Cambridge from 1976 to 1984, was best known as lead scientist for Beagle 2, a British-led project to land a spacecraft on Mars and search for evidence of life. The name Beagle 2 reflected Pillinger’s hope for the project: "HMS Beagle was the ship that took Darwin on his voyage around the world in the 1830s and led to our knowledge about life on Earth making a real quantum leap," he said. "We hope Beagle 2 will do the same thing for life on Mars."

The tiny spacecraft was due to land on Christmas Day, 2003, but no radio communications were ever received from it after it separated from the Mars Express six days before its planned entry into the atmosphere. The search for an answer as to what went wrong continues, but the craft is presumed lost.

After gaining a PhD from the University of Wales, Pillinger began his career at NASA. On his personal website, he says, "I was one of the lucky few to be a part of NASA’s great lunar adventure to put the first men on the moon." He subsequently held positions at the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge, before spending most of the latter part of his career at the Open University. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1993, and was awarded a CBE in 2003.

Colin Pillinger is survived by his wife, Judith, and two children.