The National Research Foundation (NRF) has made R64 million available to the South African National Research and Education Network (Sanren), for the construction of an Internet broadband fibre-optic link to the national fibre-optic backbone.
This follows long funding negotiations between stakeholders last year, after Telkom demanded R36 million to connect the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) to Cape Town.
According to the NRF, this will link SALT to the national fibre-optic backbone, improving data transmission to the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), where data from SALT is analysed.
SALT is the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. It is able to record distant stars, galaxies and quasars a billion times too faint to be seen with the unaided eye - as faint as a candle flame at the distance of the moon, says the NRF.
At the moment, information gathered by SALT has to be cut onto CD and then physically transported to Cape Town before scientists from around the world are able to access the data and work on it.
“The link will also bring fast Internet connectivity to the remote site in the Northern Cape outside Carnarvon, where SA is building MeerKAT, the Karoo Array Telescope, and where it hopes to build the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope, should it win the bid.”
Linking these sites to the Sanren broadband fibre-optic backbone will increase data transmission speeds to between 1Gbps and 10Gbps, says the NRF.
The chairperson of the SALT board, Ted Williams, says: "This high-speed network will complete a long-term effort to allow data to flow in near-real time from SALT to the SAAO, South African universities, and the international partners.”
He says not only will this enhance the efficiency and productivity of the telescope, but also significantly strengthen SA's outreach and educational programmes. “We applaud the commitment and foresight of the NRF that has made this achievement possible," he adds.
The Democratic Alliance shadow minister of science and technology, Marian Shinn, says for local scientists to increasingly take part in global partnership, SA needs the best communications infrastructure and scientific platforms it can afford, so an investment of this nature is to be welcomed.
“This is good news for the science and university community that needs extensive broadband communications support so they can share research facilities,“ she says. The network is also essential for the online, real-time research information to come out of SALT via Cape Town en route to the internationally-based astronomers that need it,” adds Shinn.
NRF vice-president of research infrastructure and national research facilities, Gatsha Mazithulela, says this investment further demonstrates SA's commitment to research in astronomy and astrophysics.
“This investment is also a clear indication of our commitment to SA's bid to host the SKA telescope,” he points out.
The SKA is a mega telescope, about 100 times more sensitive than the biggest existing radio telescope. It will consist of about 3 000 dish-shaped antennae and other hybrid receiving technologies, with a core of about 2 000 antennae and outlying stations of 30 to 40 antennae each, spiralling out of the core. These stations will be spread over area of up to 3 000km.
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