Name and Location
MeerKAT telescope project, Karoo, Northern Cape, South Africa.

Client
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) South Africa is the agency that is driving South Africa’s bid to host the €1.5-billion international SKA radio telescope and the MeerKAT programme.

Project Description
South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope array is intended to be a precursor to the international SKA radio telescope. The MeerKAT evolved from the original idea of a Karoo Array Telescope (KAT).

The reference design specification for the full MeerKAT is 64 offset dishes, each of which is 13.5 m in diameter, with single-pixel wideband feeds covering the 500 MHz to 2.5 GHz frequency range.

The full MeerKAT will have a central core, but some dishes are almost 10 km apart, thus replicating the SKA on a small scale.

It will also facilitate the installation of multiple receiver systems in the primary and secondary focal areas and is the reference design for the midband SKA concept.

The MeerKAT will be delivered in three phases.

The first phase – the MeerKAT Precursor Array, known as KAT-7 and which comprises seven 12-m-diameter composite parabolic dishes at the Karoo site – was completed in 2010.

This prototype interferometer array serves as an engineering test-bed for technologies and systems and as an operational radio telescope. The MeerKAT will form the core of the SKA, which will comprise 3 000 dishes and a central aperture array.

Value
The estimated cost is R900-million.

Duration
The commissioning of MeerKAT is scheduled for 2014/15, with the array coming on line for science operations in 2016. This phase includes all antennas, but only the first receiver will be fitted and a processing bandwidth of 750 MHz will be available.

For MeerKAT Phase 2 and Phase 3, the remaining two receivers will be fitted and the processing bandwidth will be increased to at least 2 GHz, and later to 4 GHz.

Latest developments
The South African SKA site, in the Karoo, is currently a hub of construction activity and plans are on track to deliver the 64 MeerKAT antennas by the end of 2016, says MeerKAT project manager Willem Esterhuyse.

According to Esterhuyse, Antenna 1 will be installed by December 2013.

Work being conducted by the MeerKAT team is providing strong momentum for the integration of MeerKAT into SKA Phase 1.

Discussions between SKA SA and the International SKA project about this integration are under way.
Various subsystems of MeerKAT are at either the requirements review stage, or the preliminary design review stage. The full qualification and critical design review is expected to be completed in early 2014.

“Until the SKA is completed, MeerKAT will be the most sensitive radio interferometer in the world in the L-Band,” Esterhuyse explains.

The Meerkat team has been able to increase the sensitivity of its offset Gregorian dish design from 220 m²/K to 300 m²/K by using system and value engineering processes, without increasing the overall costs.

This constitutes a 36% improvement in sensitivity and an 86% improvement in survey speed, compared with the initial specifications.

Meanwhile, the upgrade to the Karoo substation, in Carnarvon, was completed and handed over to Eskom in December 2012.

By mid-April 2013, the roads and civil works, as well as the electrical and fibre-ducting reticulation for MeerKAT, should be completed. Simultaneously, construction teams are working on extensions to the dish assembly and the pedestal integration sheds, the Karoo Array processor building and the on-site power facility.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Group Five Coastal (building foundations), Schneider Electric South Africa (building management system), Stratosat Datacom and General Dynamics Satcom Technologies (design, construction, installation and commissioning of antennas).

On Budget and on Time?
The project is on schedule.

Contact Details for Project Information
MeerKAT engineering office, tel +27 21 506 7300 or fax +27 21 506 7375.
Group Five Coastal, tel +27 31 5690300 or fax +27 31 569 0420.
Schneider Electric South Africa, tel +27 11 254 6400,
fax +27 11 254 6700/6704 or email enquiries@za.schneider-electric.com.
Stratosat Datacom, tel +27 11 974 0006 or fax +27 11 974 0068.
General Dynamics Satcom, tel +1 828 464 4141, fax +1 828 464 4147 or email info@gdsatcom.com.