British planetary scientist Colin Pillinger, best known for his 2003 attempt to land a spacecraft on Mars, has died aged 70, his family have said.
Prof Pillinger was at his home in Cambridge when he suffered a brain haemorrhage and fell into a deep coma.
His family said he later died at Addenbrooke's Hospital without regaining consciousness.
His death was "devastating and unbelievable", they said in a statement.
Dr David Parker, the chief executive of the UK Space Agency, led the tributes.
He said Prof Pillinger had played a critical role in raising the profile of the British programme and had inspired "young people to dream big dreams".
'Unfinished business'The space scientist built a probe to search for Martian life, naming it Beagle 2 after Charles Darwin's HMS Beagle.
The probe was carried piggyback to the Red Planet on a European satellite, but vanished without trace after being dropped off to make its landing.
Prof Pillinger continued to push space agencies to complete what he called "unfinished business on Mars", and was highly critical of the delays that have seen Europe's follow-up mission, ExoMars, slip back to 2018.
Fans took to Twitter on Thursday to pay tribute to the scientist, with author Keith Mansfield calling him a "great advocate" for space and Mars.
Phil Ford, a writer on Dr Who, said: "Very sad to see Prof Colin Pillinger has died. A proper British boffin who will be fondly remembered for the Beagle Mars mission."
Apollo samplesAt the age of 62 Prof Pillinger was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which made it difficult for him to walk.
He said the illness would not diminish his research, and his motorised buggy was often seen racing around scientific conferences.
With colleagues at the Open University, where he headed the Department of Physical Sciences until 2005, he was keenly looking forward to this year's Rosetta mission.
The pan-European venture plans to put a lander on a comet this November, and an OU instrument will help investigate the object's chemistry.
Prof Pillinger cut his scientific teeth analysing samples brought back from the Moon by the Apollo astronauts.
He was awarded a CBE in 2003 and had an asteroid named after him a year later.
"A piece of Prof Pillinger now moves between Mars and Jupiter," a Nasa scientist said at the time.
For the British media, he was often the go-to man for a comment when a new piece of space science was published.
Science advocateThe press appreciated his straight-talking, and the whiskers and the Bristolian accent just added to his appeal.
But he will be best remembered for his Beagle exploits, and his ability to excite anyone about space science.
On the publication of his biography in 2010, My Life On Mars, he recalled an event that made him realise the lost probe would be his legacy.
"I pulled into the OU car park and there was this huge lorry, a guy delivering a load of bricks - a builder, obviously," he told the BBC.
"I looked at this guy and I thought 'he's going to take a while', so I dashed in front of him in my car to get into the parking space. Well, the door opened on the lorry and this huge man got out - you could eat your dinner off his hands - and he started walking towards the car. And I thought, 'Bloody hell, I'm going to get thumped'.
"Well, he stuffed this huge paw through the window and said, 'You're the man who launched Beagle-2, aren't you? I want to shake your hand, mate'. And that to me says everything. There's nobody in the UK I didn't reach."
Prof Pillinger was married to Judith with whom he had two children, Shusanah and Nicolas.
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