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

Client
The Square Kilometre Array South Africa (SKA SA) 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 of 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 with a diameter of 13.5 m, with single-pixel wideband feeds covering the 500 MHz to 2.5 GHz frequency range. The design means that there are no struts over the dish, which can reduce or scatter incoming radio waves, thus increasing the sensitivity of the antenna.

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. MeerKAT is designed to be integrated into the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope, which will be co-hosted by South Africa and Australia.

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
South African Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom formally launched the first dish of the MeerKAT radio telescope array in the Karoo, on March 27.

When completed, all 64 MeerKAT dishes will be connected by 170 km of optical fibre cable and will be operated together as a single instrument from a control room in Cape Town.

“In just two years from now, 64 dishes will be standing there [in the Karoo],” enthuses Hanekom. They will be in addition to the seven, smaller and differently designed, dishes of the prototype KAT-7 array, which has now transitioned into an operational scientific instrument,” Hannekom has said.

Phase 2 of the SKA entails establishing outstations in other countries, including theother African states of Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia.

The MeerKAT Karoo Array Processor Building, which is a high-technology data-processing centre, built at the Karoo observatory site, was also opened. The building is below ground level to help shield the dishes from radio frequency interference from the computers, processors and other electronic and electrical equipment housed in it. These systems are housed in shielded rooms within the building.

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) and Brink & Heath Civils (foundations).

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 technologies, tel +1 828 464 4141, fax +1 828 464 4147 or email info@gdsatcom.com.
Brink & Heath Civils, tel +27 21 551 2640, fax +27 21 551 2977 or email admin@brinkheath.co.za.