Prof Volker Gass spoke to about 100 people at the Otago Museum about the Swiss Space Centre, explaining the benefits it had brought to his country.
He was invited to New Zealand as a consortium of research organisations plans to establish such a space centre in this country.
The plan has been shortlisted for government funding through the Regional Research Institute initiative.
The centre would include research using space-based measurement and satellite imagery unique to New Zealand.
The University of Otago’s School of Surveying is a contributor to the consortium’s efforts and, in May, a Central Otago-led group announced plans to create New Zealand’s first satellite programme from a space research centre based in Alexandra.
Prof Gass said he was in New Zealand to explain how the Swiss centre was run.
He had taken part in 15 meetings with groups including government ministries, which were "really open discussions".
The Swiss Space Centre supports institutions, academia and industry to access space missions and associated activities.
In New Zealand he had been explaining how "you don’t have to remake the mistakes we did".
Prof Gass said the centre did not specifically do science research.
Instead of competing, it helped scientists work with industry.
Its successes included its first project, dealing with the problem of space junk, just one month after setting up in 2012.
One result of his visit to New Zealand, Prof Gass said, was an expected visit by Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier to this country.
