The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Science Advisory Committee will make a recommendation on either SA or Australia as the host site if there are sufficient differences between the two bids.
The SKA is a mega-telescope that is about 100 times more sensitive than the biggest existing radio telescope.
SA and Australia are competing to host the telescope and both countries submitted the documents supporting their bids yesterday.
“The reports submitted cover a wide range of information - measurements of radio frequency interference and the physical conditions on the core site in the Northern Cape Karoo and the remote sites spread through SA and the other partner countries, measurements of the ionosphere and troposphere, analysis of the scientific performance of the array,” says the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
It also included designs for the roads, buildings and other infrastructure required, proposals for how 105MW of power can be supplied to the core site in the Karoo and how the remote sites can be powered, how the huge amounts of data can be transported from the telescope dishes in the Karoo and other sites to the central computer and then to the control centre in Cape Town and to science centres in other countries around the world.
The submission details the customs and excise duties, work permits and visas, laws affecting how the SKA will operate in SA, working conditions for a highly skilled workforce of scientists and engineers, the financial and economic system, and how security will be provided for the telescope.
The bid documents represent eight years of work.
January recommendation
“Africa will provide a home for the SKA to do revolutionary science. Our bid is a strong, cost-effective and robust proposal for building the Square Kilometre Array in Africa,” says science and technology minister Naledi Pandor.
The bid reports will be evaluated by expert panels and considered by an independent SKA Science Advisory Committee made up of leading international scientists and science administrators, says the DST.
It adds that they may ask for further information or clarification from SA and Australia, which has partnered with New Zealand.
SKA SA project office representatives will meet this committee in the US, in December.
If there are sufficient differences between the two bids, the committee will aim to make a recommendation on a site by January 2012.
“Its recommendation will go to the not-for-profit SKA company, which will be established in November, with about 15 governments as its members. They will consider the recommendation and any other factors they wish to take into account and aim to make a decision by February or March 2012.”
African bid
The African SKA site bid is led by SA's Department of Science and Technology and includes Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Madagascar, Zambia, Mauritius, Kenya and Ghana.
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.
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