South African company Stratosat Datacom officially opened its new facility for manufacturing sub-reflectors for the MeerKAT radio telescope in Elandsfontein, east of Johannesburg, on April 23. In his address at the event, Department of Science and Technology director-general Dr Phil Mjwara hailed it as “yet another milestone in the building of the MeerKAT radio telescope”.

“It is extremely important to South Africa to demonstrate to the rest of the world we can build a world-class telescope,” he said. “And, therefore, this partnership [with Stratosat Datacom] helps us to achieve this.”

“This is a major event,” Stratosat Datacom Executive MD Dr Dieter Kovar told Engineering News. “This is a major move into being a manufacturing company, from being a trading company. The SKA (Square Kilometre Array) is a scientific dream. “For a company like us, this is a dream, and a demonstration that a small company like us, with the help of other partners can make it!”

Previously, the company assembled satellite com-munications systems and serviced them. With the MeerKAT project, it has made a significant move into manufacturing. In November, it opened a facility in Kempton Park (also east of Johannesburg) to manufacture the panels that form the dishes of the MeerKAT antennas. These panels are packed into crates and sent to the MeerKAT site, some 90 km west of the small town of Carnarvon, in the Karoo region of the Northern Cape province, where they are assembled into complete dishes.

MeerKAT is intended both as a major scientific instrument in its own right and as a precursor to the giant international SKA radio telescope, which will be co-hosted by South Africa and Australia. The MeerKAT will comprise 64 dishes, each with an effective diameter of 13.5 m and will later be absorbed into Phase 1 of the SKA. “The MeerKAT is all on schedule,” reported SKA South Africa associate director: science and engineering Professor Justin Jonas. “We hit our last milestone, of four antennas erected by the end of March, in the face of external challenges like load-shedding [power cuts or outages].”

On each antenna, the main dish collects the incoming radio waves and focuses them on the 4.2-m- diameter subreflector, which then, in turn, focuses them onto the antenna’s receivers. “The sub-reflector is a really key element of the antenna,” he explained. “It’s a large precision component and uses very innovative fabrication technology.”

Each subreflector is made of an aluminium ‘veil’ and several layers of fibreglass (of various thicknesses) and also carbon fibre, fused together. The aluminium forms the reflective surface and the glass and carbon fibres provide the structure. The process of fusing all these layers together, on the mould, takes 24 hours, during which time there must be no cut in the power supply. Consequently, the facility has its own backup power.

“What we need is a product that comes out to our specifications and stays within budget,” noted Jonas. “This is a technology that has allowed our contractor to achieve both of these targets. It’s an efficient way of making lots of these high-precision components. But it also produces high quality – a very smooth surface for the sub-reflector. This improves efficiency in operation.”

The subreflector facility is hosted within the new TSR plant, from which Stratosat Datacom is renting the space and services. “It’s worked out well,” reported Kovar. “It’s a great location and it has everything we need.” It is hoped that the success of this work for MeerKAT will result in the company later winning contracts for the SKA itself.