SKA (Square Kilometre Array) will be the world’s most powerful radio telescope – one hundred times more sensitive than any current radio telescope; it will revolutionise our understanding of the Universe. It is currently being built in South Africa’s Karoo desert and progress in 2016 has been swift.
South Africa is today one of the world’s premier destinations for technology development and despite its position on the map (isolated from many advanced nations) and its economic situation, which leaves much to be desired, some of the world’s most important technological developments are happening here.
Some of the largest and fastest 3D printers in the world are being made in SA, the fastest super computer in Africa was recently unveiled, the world land speed record will be attempted later this year, rockets and satellites have been launched into space by SA-born Elon Musk, the CAT scan that helps medical professionals all over the world is from SA, the world’s first heart transplant was performed in SA and many more science and technology innovations emerge from South Africa through its people.
Ongoing since 1993, the SKA project is perhaps one of South Africa’s most prestigious science and technology developments. When complete and fully commissioned for scientific operations in 2030, the SKA telescope will be the world’s largest and most powerful radio telescope. Made up of a collection of different antenna spread across Africa and Australia (more than 130,000 in total), the SKA telescope will help to answer fundamental questions about the laws of nature such as how did the Universe form and evolve? Was Einstein’s theory of relativity correct? What is the nature of ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’? Is there life somewhere else in the Universe? Put simply, the SKA Project is a science mega project which requires the development and use of the most advanced technology. Constructed in a number of phases, the telescope will be one of the most advanced developments ever devised by humans and will be centred around South Africa.
Back in August 2015, Enterprise Africa profiled the success of the project so far and found that construction of the SKA precursor telescope, the MeerKAT (64 interlinked receptors), was underway and looking good. MeerKAT Project Manager, Willem Esterhuyse said: “MeerKAT will be a world-class instrument that will allow us to perform hugely exciting science observations – truly a national facility to be proud of.”
But since then there has been much progress. The project has moved very quickly and many developments have been seen, both on site in SA and also at the SKA headquarters in Manchester, UK.
AWARD WINNING
At the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction (SAISC) steel awards in September 2015, the MeerKAT project partners received many accolades for their work in designing and constructing the various steel components that are part of the MeerKAT array.
The project team is made up of Stratosat Datacom, General Dynamics Satcom Technologies (US), Tricom, Vertex Antennas (Germany), Efficient Engineering and Joesa Painting.
All of the steel parts of the antenna are extremely complex and require specific engineering that is not your everyday sort of operation. The elliptically shaped support structure has a finished mass of more than 25 tons and each structure is made up of 6000 initial steel parts which are either welded or bolted into larger assemblies.
“The engineering, detailing, jig fabrication and construction move these structures into a different league from your run-of-the-mill tubular truss type project. The accuracy of dimensions after erection is critical to give the radio telescope maximum chance of achieving its unimaginable expected accuracy,” the judges said.
“A scientific project of this nature that taxes the skills of South African engineers and scientists to rise above the challenges and make it work, represents excellence in every way, but it is especially a triumph in the use of steel work and is truly deserving of being the Overall Winner of the 2015 Steel Awards.”
Thanks to this acute attention to detail and rigorous process planning, the instrument that is currently taking shape in the Karoo has already proven its worth, despite barely being an instrument yet.
NEW IMAGES
Currently in its final pre-construction phase (or detailed design phase), the design of the telescope is being fine-tuned before construction of SKA1 starts in 2018. In April, 19 of the 64 MeerKAT antenna had been installed in the Karoo.
In May, hundreds of researchers and astronomers from around the world gathered in Stellenbosch to talk about the potential of MeerKAT and what it can be used for. At the same time, engineers and scientists in the SKA office in Cape Town were testing the imaging capabilities of MeerKAT using just four of the already installed dishes. Needless to say, the results were astounding and detailed images of never before seen radio galaxies in the distant universe were met with celebration by the scientific community.
“This wonderful result has enormous significance,” said Prof Justin Jonas, Associate Director for Science and Engineering, SKA South Africa. “Just 10 years ago I would not have imagined that we would be hosting such a prestigious meeting in South Africa and building a world-leading radio telescope. This image and all that lies behind it adds to our confidence that this very complex project will be the success that we have been planning for over the past decade.”
Dr Fernando Camilo, SKA South Africa Chief Scientist, who only joined the organisation in February following a distinguished career at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and Columbia University in New York, was understandably excited, saying: “This image covers less than 0.01% of the entire celestial sphere. Given that we detect more than 50 galaxies in such a small patch of sky, observed with only four dishes, imagine the discoveries that are going to be made surveying the entire South African sky with the full 64-dish MeerKAT!”
Dr Rob Adam, SKA South Africa Project Director paid tribute to the hard work that has been undertaken by all stakeholders to date. “It is a testament to the dedicated work of hundreds of engineers, scientists, managers and other staff, as well as of the South African and international industrial partners, and the support of the government and people of South Africa for more than a decade,” he says.
SKA DESIGN FINALISED
The KAT-7 and MeerKAT precursors offering just a glimpse of what will be available when the SKA is complete, understandably work is moving at an ever increasing pace. Experts from all over the world are regularly visiting South Africa, Australia and the SKA offices, engineers and scientists are in constant contact from around the world and all stakeholders are being regularly updated and informed about the significance of the previous stage and the importance of the next.
In May 2016, the design for the SKA dish was finalised meaning that construction of the dishes can begin and when construction of the complete array starts, the design of the dish will be ready to go.
After exploring different designs from Canada, China and South Africa, with components supplied by partners in Germany and Australia, the SKA Dish Consortium Board (made up of institutes from Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Italy and South Africa) agreed that the Chinese-designed Panel, Space-frame supported Metal (PSM) concept would be most suitable.
Head of Project at SKA Organisation, Alistair McPherson said: “This decision is a major milestone towards delivering the SKA. Being able to ‘see’ what the SKA dishes will look like for the first time is a big satisfaction for all involved.”
Roger Franzen, SKA Dish Consortium Lead said: “We’re confident the selected design will perform well in the harsh conditions of the Karoo in South Africa and will deliver the precision that the scientific community needs to answer the questions they’re trying to solve.”
“The next step for us is to build and test a prototype at the South African site” he said.
The prototype will be called SKA-P and is led by JLRAT/CETC54 in collaboration with European companies MTM and Società Aerospaziale Mediterranea (SAM), and the assembly, integration and verification of SKA-P will be done on site together with SKA SA team.
“We expect the installation of SKA-P on the ground to happen by spring 2017. Once satisfied with its performance, the project will be in a good position to go to tender and issue the contract for the mass production of 133 dishes to make up SKA1-mid,” said Franzen.
A BUSY YEAR
2016 is set to be an extremely busy year at SKA SA headquarters. Following the success of the project so far, there is still so much left to do and a mega-project still lays in front of the team as we look forward to 2030 and full operations.
SKA Phase 1 will implement around 10% of the total collecting area of the second phase. 190 SKA-mid dishes will be built and South Africa’s 64-antenna, mid-frequency radio telescope array, MeerKAT, will be incorporated into the array to provide a 254-dish array. The MeerKAT dishes are very similar to the SKA dishes, and the design of the SKA dishes will be strongly influenced by the MeerKAT design.
“Within the coming year MeerKAT will join the ranks of world-class astronomical facilities,” said Dr Camilo. “It’s extraordinary how much has been accomplished in South African radio astronomy over the past decade, through the hard work and dedication of numerous engineers, managers, scientists, and SKA South Africa partners, all supported by the South African government and people. MeerKAT and the related SKA activities provide outstanding scientific opportunities, as well as uniquely important channels for the development of human capital at various levels within the country. Much remains to be done, but the future looks very promising, these are exciting times. I’m happy to have the opportunity to join my colleagues in South Africa and help make this promise a reality.”
Dr Bernie Fanaroff, outgoing Project Director who was replaced by Rod Adam, said: “It has been a wonderful project to build the biggest science instrument in Africa. The SKA SA team is definitely one of the best in the world and is widely recognised as such.”