Bids for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope are due today from SA and Australia, which are competing against each other to host the project.
The SKA is a mega-telescope that is about 100 times more sensitive than the biggest existing radio telescope.
SKA SA project manager Bernie Fanaroff says the final submissions are due today and SA is ready to put in its bid.
“We don't know what the Australians are putting in, but we've put in a strong bid.”
He adds that it's difficult to know who will win, or to feel confident at this point, because there is no idea as to what the Australian team is submitting and how it compares to SA's.
Last meeting
After this submission, the site advisory committee for the SKA will pose questions to the hopeful countries, based on their bids.
These questions will request more information around the submissions, says Fanaroff.
“We will be meeting with them in December to discuss the submissions and to give additional information.”
Successful bidder
The SKA will consist of approximately 3 000 dish-shaped antennae and other hybrid receiving technologies that will be spread over a vast area of up to 3 000km.
Research areas will include observational radio astronomy, radio astronomy instrumentation, digital signal processing, distributed data processing and RF broadband feeds, receivers and cryogenic packages.
The announcement of the successful bidder will be made in early 2012 and construction is scheduled to start around 2016.
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