Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 29 February 2008 14:01
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 3
A journey through the stars, via ground based radio astronomy? That’s
the WA Govt’s plan, with a $20m package to boost their chances of
winning the A$2 billion ‘Square Kilometre Array’.
A statement from the West Australian (WA) Government has
unveiled that Australia's largest state is in with a very big chance to become the home of a next-generation project in radio astronomy.
Australia is one of two international bidders shortlisted for the ‘Square Kilometre Array’, or SKA - an international project to develop a next-generation radio telescope capable of exploring the origins of the universe, with scientists and research organisations from 19 countries contributing to the project.
According to the official
SKA Telescope website’s press materials, “The SKA science reach will be extraordinary, allowing new discoveries in astroparticle physics and cosmology, fundamental physics, galactic and extragalactic astronomy, and solar system science”.
An issue of
Cosmos Magazine from 2006 said the SKA will cost A$1 billion to build (although the WA Govt’s statement says A$2b) and “is expected to be operational by 2020”.
Cosmos Magazine continued that: “The advanced array would consist of thousands of radio dish antennas spread across the continent to create a 'virtual' dish thousands of kilometres in diameter. Though spread over more than 3,000 km, half of the antennas in the Australian SKA would be in a central 5 km by 5 km region in outback Western Australia”.
WA Premier Alan Carpenter said in a statement that: “The SKA is considered to be the world’s biggest science project of the 21st century. Our logic is simple - we want to win the SKA project for Australia. We already have the best site in the world; now we want the best science in the world”.
Carpenter continued that: “We want WA to provide not only the site (the Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory in the State’s Mid-West), but also the infrastructure and the people doing the core science and engineering.”
Carpenter is clearly very keen to win, and expects to, with ‘The West Australian newspaper’
quoting Premier Carpenter saying that: “The decision should be a foregone conclusion”.
So, is a $20m package enough to win the bid? What precisely will the money be spent on, and where will nearly $10m more be spent in related projects? And can a ‘Carpenter’ really build the world’s largest radio telescope? Please read onto page 2.
