Name and Location
Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, South Africa and Australia.

Client
The international SKA project is run by the UK-based SKA Organisation. The project in South Africa is the responsibility of a separate, local organisation, SKA SA.

Project Description
The aim of the project is to construct an SKA, which will be an interferometric array of individual antenna stations, synthesising an aperture, with a diameter of up to several thousand kilometres.

The SKA will operate over a range of frequencies from about 100 MHz to 25 GHz.

The radio telescope array will deploy a total collecting area of 1 km² and will comprise a very large number of elements.

It will consist of 3 000 radio telescope dishes, each 12 m to 15 m in diameter, and other hybrid technologies.

Three-quarters of the SKA project will be hosted in South Africa and will be located at a remote site 80 km from Carnarvon, in the Northern Cape Three antenna stations will be in Namibia, four in Botswana and one each in Mozambique, Mauritius, Madagascar, Ghana, Kenya and Zambia. Each antenna will comprise about 30 to 40 antennas, which will be synchronised to a data-processing facility through a data communications network.

The balance of the SKA will be hosted in Australia.

The array requires high-quality imaging of low-brightness emission, high angular resolution and milliarc second-scale imaging capability.

The array configuration will include a compact core. About 50% of the collecting area is within 5 km, an extended array containing about 75% of the collecting area is within 150 km, with the rest of the array configuration situated in various distant stations up to a few thousand kilometres away.

The MeerKAT radio telescope array is intended as a precursor to the SKA radio telescope. MeerKAT derives its name from the prototype South African radio telescope array, Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7). The numeral seven indicates the number of dishes comprising the instrument and ‘meer’ is the Afrikaans word for more.

Value
SKA was initially expected to cost €1.5-billion to build and between €150-million and €200-million a year to operate and maintain; however, the project is now expected to cost more, with South Africa and Australia to host the project.

The SKA will be funded by an international consortium comprising 67 organisations in 20 different countries.

A newly established SKA Founding Board has agreed to work together to secure funding for the next phase of the project.

Duration
The decision on where to site the SKA was made in May 2012.

Construction of Phase 1 is due to start in 2019. The SKA is expected be fully operational by 2024.

Latest Developments
The SKA South Africa has partnered with IBM and the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (Astron) to develop a high-speed exascale computing system to support the SKA radio telescope.

The four-year project will result in scientists working together remotely and at an Astron and IBM Centre for Exascale Technology in the Netherlands.

But SKA project director Dr Bernie Fanaroff says he will persuade IBM to take this further.

“We want to persuade IBM that it should be relocating some of its research capacity here in South Africa,” he told Engineering News Online.

“Ultimately, we’d like them to build a research laboratory in South Africa,” he said

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.

Antenna 1 is expected to 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.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Neotel/Broadband Infraco joint venture, or JV (bandwidth network); Eskom (electricity); Telkom (telecommunications); and Nokia Siemens Networks, Intel, Seacom, Dimension Data, Microsoft and IBM (connectivity support).

On Budget and on Time?
The project is reportedly on course, with the initial phases scheduled to go ahead in 2013.

Contact Details for Project Information
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research general and technical enquiries, Tendani Tsedu, tel +27 12 841 3417.
SKA South Africa, tel +27 11 442 2434, fax +27 11 442 2454 or email tcheetham@ska.ac.za.