New Zealand 'stupid' - top space engineer

Warwick Holmes, pictured here with the Rosetta space craft he helped build, has criticised New Zealand. Photo / supplied

New Zealand has been blasted as "stupid" by a top space engineer for not investing more in science and engineering.

Australian avionics systems engineer Warwick Holmes - who helped build, test and launch the Rosetta space craft that successfully landed a probe on Comet-67P - is disappointed to find that engineers and scientists 'down under' are so poorly paid.

"These are the people who have ideas and are making things, creating things, and solving problems for the benefit of all members of society and yet in Australia the government seems more interested in promoting and supporting sports, the arts, and the finance sector, and I don't see it being any different in New Zealand," he said.

"Are we too stupid to be to be doing the clever stuff? I suggest we're stupid for not doing it."

Mr Holmes will be in Hamilton later this month to give a public lecture at the University of Waikato about his career and the Rosetta project.

Mr Holmes spent 29 years working on European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft projects and missions including four-and-a-half years on the Rosetta project.

Last November, the Rosetta landed the Philae probe - a 100kg robot laboratory "about the size of a washing machine" - on the comet.

Mr Holmes wants to encourage young people to get into science, engineering and technology.

"These people make things like space exploration possible. And yet in Australia and New Zealand they're paid a fraction of bankers, lawyers and financial industry managers: why is that?" he said.

"So we're effectively telling people 'don't be engineers, you don't get paid enough to do the best and most interesting job in the world'. The belief is not there. Those who can do it go off shore.

"I've worked the whole 29 years of my professional life in Europe and North America, but I wish it could have been in Australia. I wish I could have been giving my knowledge, expertise and experience to the benefit of Australia."

He said it was important that space exploration continued and New Zealand increased its understanding of how the planets were formed.

"There are also more important economic reasons that Australia and New Zealand would benefit from direct involvement in space engineering, including agriculture, security, weather, and even earthquake monitoring for New Zealand from space."

Mr Holmes' free public lecture will be at 6pm on April 23 in the Academy of Performing Arts.

* To attend, email rsvp@waikato.ac.nz with "Space lecture" in the subject line.