Name of the Project
MeerKAT telescope project.

Location
Northern Cape, South Africa.

Client
The Square Kilometre Array South Africa (SKA SA) is the agency that drove 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.

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 completed 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 SKA radio telescope, which will be cohosted by South Africa and Australia.

Potential Job Creation
The project has created about 7 284 employment opportunities to date.

Value
The estimated cost is R900-million.

Duration
The project was inaugurated in July 2018.

Latest Developments
After a decade in design and construction, the MeerKAT radio telescope, was inaugurated on July 13.

The MeerKAT is the precursor to the R10-billion Square Kilometre Array (SKA) – an international enterprise to build the largest and most sensitive radio telescope globally. Its infrastructure will be located in Africa and Australia.

The MeerKAT will be integrated into the midfrequency component of SKA Phase 1 by 2020.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Group Five Coastal (building foundations); Schneider Electric South Africa (building management system); Stratosat Datacom (part of Germany’s Schauenburg Group), with its technology partners, General Dynamics Satcom, of the US, and Vertex Antennentechnik, of Germany (design, construction, installation and commissioning of antennas); Efficient Engineering (antenna pedestals and yokes); Tricom Structures (backup structures for dishes); Titanus Slew Rings (main azimuth bearings); National Research Council of Canada (low-noise amplifiers); Oxford Cryosystems (cryogenic cooling system); Brink & Heath Civils (foundations); and Max-Planck-Society and Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (S-band radio-wave receivers).

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.