The scientist behind Britain’s failed Beagle 2 mission to Mars has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, it emerged tonight.

Professor Colin Pillinger was diagnosed with MS - a disease of the nervous system - six weeks ago after experiencing problems walking during the past two years.

But he told the BBC’s Six O’Clock News that the illness would not stop his efforts to get Beagle technology back on Mars.

Professor Pillinger passionately led the mission to land the UK-built Beagle 2 probe on Mars to search for life on the red planet.

The probe - part of a mission estimated to cost £50 million - was due to land on Mars on Christmas Day 2003, but nothing was heard from Beagle 2 after it ejected from its mothership.

Since then the 62-year-old has been working hard to persuade space agencies to take an updated version of Beagle to Mars.

After being diagnosed with MS, the scientist has been using crutches to get around when not in the security of his home or lab.

He told the BBC that he had been diagnosed with primary progressive MS – which means he is likely to face a steady decline.

"I’ve found it continuously increasingly difficult to walk," he said. "Some people have told me that they were diagnosed and nothing else happened after the diagnosis.

"For me it has got worse since the diagnosis.

"Who knows how far it continues to get worse? That’s something you just have to wait and see." MS is most commonly diagnosed in those aged 20 to 40 and it is unusual for someone to be diagnosed older than this.

Professor Pillinger said that his MS would slow down his efforts to get back to Mars, but said it would not stop him. "We have unfinished business on Mars," he said.

"The science is more important now than it ever was because of discoveries that were made with Mars Express, the Nasa Rovers and ground based astronomy.

"It all suggests that we were right to look for life on Mars and we might be able to find both past and present life and the experiments haven’t been done yet and its up to us to do them."

Professor Pillinger said that he had considered whether he should become a champion for MS research, in the quest to find effective treatments for the disease.

But he said: "I think that that would be a little bit selfish because I believe that by doing the things we do in space we encourage people to take science and technology careers.

"It’s actually those people who’ll be running the instruments in the hospitals that do the diagnostics. "So I think I can do better championing all science rather than championing just one cause."

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