SA urged to back telescope bid
2009-09-09 17:33
Cape Town - South Africans should get behind the bid to build the world's biggest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), in the same way they lobbied to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup, parliament's science and technology portfolio committee heard on Wednesday.
"We are convinced that if we want to win this, one of the very important things is going to be that the people in other countries see that South Africa wants this, the same way as we wanted the soccer World Cup," SKA project manager Bernie Fanaroff told MPs.
South Africa and Australia are competing to host the massive SKA project, which will cost about €2bn to build, and need between €150m and €200m a year to maintain and operate.
The telescope - the brainchild of a consortium of major international science funding agencies in 15 countries - comprises 3 000 giant antenna dishes, each the height of a three-storey building.
The SKA core site proposed in South Africa is in the Northern Cape, where most of the dishes will be erected, but others will be located in neighbouring countries, and as far away as Ghana and Madagascar.
Origins of first galaxies, stars, planets
Between 50 and 100 times more sensitive than any other radio telescope on Earth, the SKA will be used by astronomers to explore the origins of the universe's first galaxies, stars and planets.
Winning the bid will be a huge boost for local industry, with a significant portion of the capital, operation and maintenance costs expected to be spent in the host country.
Weighing up South Africa's chances of being chosen above Australia, Fanaroff said there were advantages and disadvantages for both parties.
"The Australians have got a big advantage in that Australia is [geographically] bigger than South Africa. This telescope goes 3 000km, which you can fit into Australia, [but] you can't fit into South Africa.
"So we have to put bits of it in seven other countries. So that makes it more complicated for us.
"But we have a big advantage in that it's a helluva lot cheaper to build in South Africa. It costs about half to construct things in South Africa compared to what it costs in Australia."
He said the decision was going to be a long process.
"In 2011, the astronomers are going to make the recommendation based on the technical factors, and then, in 2012, the government's and the science funding agencies, probably at ministerial level, from these 15 countries, will make a decision."
They would take into account both technical and political factors.
Fanaroff then called on MPs to champion the South African bid.
'Roadshows all around the world'
"Australia is taking this very seriously. Their prime minister and their cabinet is going around the world lobbying... They've had roadshows all around the world.
"And I want to ask this committee to take seriously ownership of [the bid]. To say: 'How can we strengthen this idea that this is a project of all South Africans, that's important for our future'," he said.
The Square Kilometre Array is so named because the combined "collecting area" of the antenna dishes adds up to one square kilometre.
The 3 000 dishes are all linked, via fibre-optic cable, to a computer located in the core area.
The Karoo region of the Northern Cape is ideal for radio astronomy because it is remote, sparsely populated, and there is minimal radio frequency interference from man-made sources such as cellphones and TV broadcast transmitters.
Among other things, SKA's backers are hoping it will supply them with answers to many fundamental questions of astronomy, physics and cosmology.
"If there is life somewhere else in the universe, the SKA will help us find it," they say.
- SAPA