The Star: January 20, 2022
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Thursday <strong>January</strong> <strong>20</strong> <strong>20</strong>22<br />
18<br />
NEWS<br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
Rocket launch concerns<br />
• By Kristie Boland<br />
CANTERBURY University<br />
students planning a potentially<br />
record-setting rocket launch this<br />
weekend are assuring worried<br />
Birdlings Flat residents they are<br />
well prepared and have safety<br />
measures in place.<br />
UC Aerospace selected Kaitorete<br />
Spit beach, near Banks<br />
Peninsula, for lift-off as they aim<br />
to exceed the current altitude record<br />
for a student-led rocket programme<br />
held by the University<br />
of Southern California, which<br />
reached an altitude of 104km.<br />
“We’re very prepared this time,<br />
this will be the third attempt and<br />
we’ve got all of the appropriate<br />
safety measures in place,” said<br />
project leader Jack Davies.<br />
He said a 400 litre-capacity<br />
water tanker will be on site while<br />
the Little River volunteer fire brigade<br />
will be alerted if required.<br />
Fire extinguishers will also be<br />
on site.<br />
Davies said obtaining the necessary<br />
clearances from organisations<br />
including the New Zealand<br />
Space Agency, Civil Aviation<br />
Authority of New Zealand and<br />
Maritime New Zealand took<br />
longer than constructing the<br />
actual rocket.<br />
Davies said permissions takes<br />
longer than building the actual<br />
rocket. <strong>The</strong>y have gained permissions<br />
from NZ Space Agency,<br />
CAA which will organise with<br />
air traffic control, Maritime New<br />
Zealand and other smaller agencies.<br />
“(We’re) very excited. It’s been<br />
three years of work up to this<br />
point, we’re really looking forward<br />
to it,” he .<br />
<strong>The</strong> rocket will splash down<br />
about 100km offshore and will<br />
not be recovered.<br />
In spite of safety assurances,<br />
locals are wary, remembering a<br />
botched launch caused a fire in<br />
<strong>20</strong>19 after the rocket landed in a<br />
paddock.<br />
“That spit is tinder dry and if a<br />
flame takes off and the wind gets<br />
up . . . the reaction time is limited<br />
for them to sort it before the fire<br />
takes hold,” concerned resident<br />
David Peek said.<br />
“A bunch of people playing<br />
with rockets in a tinder dry area,<br />
we could have a serious fire on<br />
our hands. It will be like taking a<br />
water pistol to a major blimmin’<br />
inferno if a fire takes hold.”<br />
Fire and Emergency New<br />
Zealand senior risk adviser Bruce<br />
Janes was satisfied appropriate<br />
safety measures were in place.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y have to jump through a<br />
lot of hoops so they contacted me<br />
from a fire safety point of view.<br />
“Rockets are a bit unique, yeah<br />
there’s a lot of fire and drama but<br />
the fuel, the propellant, is very<br />
flashy, very flammable but it’s got<br />
a really short dwell time. It goes<br />
‘woof, woof’ and it’s gone.<br />
“Yes, it can cause a fire but<br />
they’re launching on sand and<br />
the rocket will be leaning and<br />
fire towards the sea. <strong>The</strong>y’re as<br />
safe as they can be.”<br />
Meanwhile, some residents<br />
welcomed the launch.<br />
Roger Cook was against a<br />
commercial enterprise but<br />
supportive of UC, which has<br />
used the site to launch rockets for<br />
several years.<br />
“(I’m) just happy they can<br />
continue and encourage young<br />
people with new opportunities,<br />
I’d love to watch it,” said Cook,<br />
a workshop engineer at Lincoln<br />
University.<br />
Glider pilot died<br />
doing what he loved<br />
• By Kayla Hodge<br />
FOR ROBERT John Martin,<br />
home was in the sky.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 72-year-old Christchurch<br />
man was killed when his glider<br />
crashed near Omarama on<br />
Monday and his daughter,<br />
Sheena-Jayne Martin, said the<br />
family was taking some comfort<br />
knowing he died doing what he<br />
loved.<br />
Martin said her father lived<br />
life to the fullest and gliding<br />
had been one of his passions for<br />
more than <strong>20</strong> years.<br />
He flew in the Omarama<br />
area often and nothing could<br />
keep him out of the sky —<br />
not even when he broke his<br />
back in a crash nearly 10 years<br />
ago.<br />
“He just loved it. He would<br />
fly thousands of kilometres all<br />
up the South Island and take<br />
photos out the window — just<br />
him and his glider,” Martin<br />
said.<br />
“He just loved that free feeling<br />
of flying.”<br />
Flying also translated through<br />
his job as an artist.<br />
He worked in graphic design,<br />
book illustrations, and as a<br />
painter, and at the time of his<br />
death was creating a series about<br />
the extinct haast eagle.<br />
Once it was completed<br />
Robert Martin had planned an<br />
exhibition. Martin said after a<br />
celebration of her father’s life<br />
was held, she planned to hold<br />
the exhibition in his honour.<br />
“[He’s] just one of the most<br />
incredible artists.”<br />
Martin joked her father was<br />
“72 going on 32”.<br />
He loved windsurfing, hanggliding,<br />
skiing and fishing, and<br />
even tramped into Dingleburn<br />
earlier this year for the start of<br />
the fishing season.<br />
Last year he competed in a<br />
masters ski race.<br />
“That’s why I called Dad<br />
Peter Pan. He just didn’t stop.<br />
He was just always living life to<br />
the fullest, that was just who he<br />
was.”<br />
Growing up in Essex, Robert<br />
Martin went to art school in<br />
London before taking off to see<br />
the world.<br />
He travelled to Australia<br />
and New Zealand, met his<br />
future wife, Anna, in his early<br />
30s, and they had three children,<br />
Sheena-Jayne, 33, James, 30, and<br />
Scott, 26.<br />
– Otago Daily Times