www.ska.edu.au

There’s still a lot we need to work out before we can build the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

Where to put it?

The SKA needs to be built some place in the southern hemisphere with a large, open space, and little interference from mobile phones, television and radio transmitters, and electrical devices. After looking at various possible sites, the SKA project team has narrowed it down to two: Australia/New Zealand or Southern Africa. The final decision is expected in 2012.

How to power it?

The SKA is going to need a lot of energy to run its systems. Can we get enough from renewable sources or should we stick to tried and tested generators? How should we power it?

How to build it?

Various projects like the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope are developing technology for the dishes and receptors.

For example, South Africa is working with foam and fibreglass dishes, while the USA is using hydroformed ones and Canada has composite ones. Whichever design we go with, we’re going to have to build an awful lot of them, pretty quickly.

Then we need to work out the layout for all the dishes, and their locations as they spread out over 1000s of kilometres.

How to deal with all the information?

Even when we know how to build the dishes and where to put them, we’ve still got the problem of what to do with all the information the SKA will gather.

The ASKAP will have 36 dishes when it starts working, and it will collect more information in its first week than is on the whole World Wide Web. The SKA will have thousands of dishes, so it is going to gather an unbelievable amount of information. We are going to have to develop new computer processing, software and networking technologies to cope. Just think how this technology will help your computers at home and school (once it gets out there)!

The SKA will require the largest and most powerful broadband network on the planet. Firstly to connect each dish with the others, over 1000s of km, and then, to allow the telescope to be controlled remotely and the data accessed from all over the world, there’ll need to be connections spanning the planet. And then we’ll have to find a way to store all the information, so our archiving technology is going to have to get a boost too.

What to call it?

In reality we’re probably stuck with the name SKA, but what do you think? It will be an “Array” but maybe you think the “Square Kilometre” bit is confusing, as that refers to its collecting area (the area of all the dishes added up), rather than its actual size (it’ll actually be spread out over around 3000 km).