SKA South Africa hopes to award the contract for the manufacture of the seven dishes required for the second phase of the country's R900-million radio telescope array project, the MeerKAT, in the next two or three weeks.

Stage one of the project was the manufacture and erection of a single prototype dish at the Hartbeeshoek radio astronomy observatory, west of Pretoria.

This antenna, including its related electronic and other systems, is now undergoing engineering tests, which will run until about September.

Stage two will see the erection of seven dishes in the Karoo, in a programme that will run from October this year to the end of next year (2009).

"We're currently looking at the bids for the antenna contract," reports MeerKAT project leader Anita Loots. "We will be awarding it towards the end of April, beginning of May."

Each dish will be 12 m in diameter, and will, like the prototype, be manufactured from composites - an innovative approach to the manufacture of radio telescope dishes, which is being pioneered by South Africa.

Stage three of MeerKAT will run from 2010 to 2012 and see the instrument expanded to 80 dishes, which will make it one of the biggest, if not the biggest, radio telescopes on Earth.

SKA South Africa is the agency which is driving both South Africa's bid to host the €1,5-billion international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope, as well as the MeerKAT programme.

South Africa and Australia are the two countries short-listed to host the SKA, and South Africa hopes that either the MeerKAT will form the core for the SKA, or, if Australia is chosen to host the SKA, that a lot of the South African technology developed for MeerKAT will be used in the construction of the international instrument.

The name MeerKAT derives from an earlier title, Karoo Array Telescope (KAT).

As the KAT original concept was expanded, the Afrikaans word meer, meaning more, was added as a prefix, creating a name that referred both to the enlarged nature of the project - more KAT - and to the lovable African mammal known for its alertness and sharp senses.