Australia proposes renewable power for SKA radio telescope
The Rudd Government announced on Wednesday it will invest $47.3 million in projects to ensure solar energy and geothermal heat power Australia's bid to host the world's most powerful radio telescope. Read more
SKA radio telescope project is showing good progress
The programme to design, develop and build the 1,5-billion Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope is on track and going well. South Africa and Australia are the two countries shortlisted to host the instrument. Read more
Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope strengthens team with two new positions The SKA Program Development Office (SPDO) today announced the appointment of Mr Kobus Cloete to the role of Project Manager and Dr Minh Huynh to the role of Deputy International SKA Project Scientist. The appointments are made at a crucial stage in the finalisation of the design for the worlds largest radio telescope. Kobus will lead the growing international SKA development team and coordinate work on the technical design of the telescope. He gained extensive experience working in the defence industry in South Africa before joining the South African MeerKAT radio astronomy project as Engineering Project Manager. He moved to the SPDO in 2008 as System Engineer for the PrepSKA phase of the SKA project and will assume his new role immediately. Source
An international competition to host what will be the world's biggest radio telescope is gathering momentum, underscoring the mounting economic interest in 'big science' projects around the world. The telescope, to be called the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), will be at least 40 times more powerful than any other radio interferometer - so powerful that it could eavesdrop on a cell-phone conversation (if any) on another planet. Read more
Scientists in Australia claim to have successfully tested the first antenna on the world's largest, most sensitive international radio telescope - still under construction. The first antenna to be assembled as part of the Australia Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope which is expected to be completed by 2013, has received its first radio signals. Read more
Astronomers and funding agencies will next year assess sites in South Africa and Australia and recommend which one be chosen as the place to build the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the world's largest and most technologically advanced telescope, South African MPs heard on Wednesday. Read more
About 150 New Zealand and Australian scientists are meeting in Auckland to work on a joint bid to host a 2.4-billion dollar international radio astronomy project. Read more
Hopes of a huge international science project coming to New Zealand and Australia have been given a boost with the recruitment of a leading astronomer to the Canberra-based CSIRO. He is Dr Phil Diamond, who will take over as head of the astronomy and space sciences division of the Australian Government research agency in June. Diamond will leave the post of director of the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Britain, a facility famed for its radio astronomy work. Read more
An interactive educational website has been launched to encourage studies in astronomy and create awareness of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope. Launching the SKA website, the Questacon Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation and Industry Richard Marles said the website is not only aimed at school-aged children but rather designed for the world. Read more
South Africa's chances of winning the bid to have the world's most powerful radio telescope built in the Northern Cape could be bolstered if it seals a partnership agreement with an oil-rich Arab country. Read more