SKAO: SKAO Collaboration Delivers Long-Term Focus

The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) continues to catalyse the science and technology industries in South Africa. An intergovernmental mega project, with input from the world’s leading minds, the SKAO will be the world’s most powerful radio telescope, capable of addressing some of the most important questions in human history.

Co-located across southern Africa and Australia, the infrastructure is taking shape and the systems continue to link up from global headquarters in Manchester, UK. A number of low-frequency radio antennas, spread across a large site in Western Australia, combine with a mid-frequency array across South Africa’s Northern Cape Karoo region. Both large projects in their own right, the two are already underway and doing great scientific work. Joining into existing infrastructure from around the world, the project has delivered surprising imagery.

South African and Australian sites were chosen because of their remote nature and low levels of radio interference.

On the ground, construction continues, with new equipment being deployed, new software being developed, and upskilling of people that will provide benefits long into the future.

GLOBALLY GROWING

An impressive list of partner nations has delivered the project to its current status as a powerful tool of science and education, and good news came in November 2024 when Germany officially announced its official joining of the global partnership. Now, the list of countries involved as official partners sits at 12 with more in the process of joining. Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK are busy working together to advance the project. France, Japan, South Korea, and Sweden are all expected to join the organisation soon, and many more are already affiliated or contributing partners.

Germany is a hub of technology and innovation, and has been involved in the project for many years. A site, currently in development, will be deployed in Görlitz as an SKAO hub in Germany. The German Center for Astrophysics (DZA) will provide access to SKA data for astronomers in the country.

The government of Germany and the science community were happy to finalise their membership.

“There is still much to discover and explore in our universe. As the world’s largest radio telescope arrays, the SKAO super telescopes in South Africa and Australia will revolutionise our understanding of the universe in the coming decades,” said Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger.

“Germany has a great history of achievement in radio astronomy and has been a valued partner in the SKA project for many years,” added Chair of the SKAO Council Dr Catherine Cesarsky. “I’m delighted that this has now resulted in SKAO membership, which reflects the hard work of many people across the community.”

Germany’s membership confirmation comes at an exciting time for the project. The initial pathfinder projects have all demonstrated early successes, but in July 2024 the first dish of the SKA-Mid telescope in South Africa achieved first light. Funded by Germany’s Max Planck Society, the single dish will form part of the larger 197-dish array. The first light image of the southern sky at 2.5 GHz showed the technology to work as it should, much to the delight of the team. The single dish is known as the SKAMPI prototype, was manufactured in China to international design specifications.

“Tests of the SKAMPI prototype have already provided invaluable measurements of key performance parameters. These have been used to refine the design of the SKA-Mid dishes to ensure that they meet our demanding requirements for pointing and surface accuracy,” said SKAO Head of System Science Dr Robert Laing.

Buoyed by this success, construction of the first SKA-Mid dish began in July 2024. The first dish proper was lifted on to its pedestal by a local team in South Africa on July 4. After rollout of SKA-Low antennas in Australia in March, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) was keen to keep pace.

Eventually, all 197 dishes will stretch over 150 km in the Northern Cape and will be able to study the universe in detail, from small radio bursts to gas distribution in far-off galaxies. Installed in a phased programme, the current construction will become part of Array Assembly 0.5, with each phase being tested independently.

“The progress this year across the Observatory has been amazing, and seeing the first SKA-Mid dish being erected is a significant moment as we head towards the first stage of telescope delivery,” said SKAO Acting Director of Programmes Luca Stringhetti.

“There’s a lot of work ahead of us, but for everyone involved, this is a special moment that represents years of toil by people all over the world, so I want to thank them for their dedication in getting us here. Special thanks must go to our partners at SARAO and CETC54 for their professionalism and commitment – this collaboration is really bearing fruit,” added SKA-Mid Senior Project Manager Ben Lewis.

“The first of anything is always the most challenging, and we have learnt a huge amount from a logistical and technical perspective from this first dish. That will inform our planning going forward as we prepare to deliver a four-dish array early next year, before ramping up to ‘full speed’ construction later in 2025,” he said.

PEOPLE POWER

Away from building structures, the global SKAO organisation continues to develop human capital. Without appropriately skilled people, this is a project that will not live into the next generation. Specifically focused on Africa, the SKAO recently signed an MoU with the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) to establish an SKAO African Programme designed to create expertise in computer science, radio astronomy, and related fields.

Before South Africa was granted the right to host the SKA Project, the SARAO – a National Facility of the National Research Foundation – and the South African Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) were already collaborating with eight African partner countries (Ghana, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Madagascar, Mozambique and Mauritius) on human capital development.

In the longer-term, SKAO will produce big data in need of analysis to assist in the ambitions of understanding the foundations of the universe, and without local and global talent, this will not be possible.

“The SKAO Africa programme supports our long-term desire to see a broader involvement in the Observatory across Africa. Our aim is to help develop the astronomy communities in countries across the continent; something that will add to the SKAO, but also enhance capability in STEM areas in those countries,” said SKAO Head of International Relations Thijs Geurts of the partnership.

International collaboration of this kind, at this scale, across such a broad range of subjects is hard to come by in modern society. Without the partnerships and shared values that transcend the SKAO, and without the willingness to innovative and advance together, many highly significant questions would remain distant. Through the SKAO and its groundbreaking work, answers are a little closer, coming into focus more so each year.