The Square Kilometre Array -

Challenges, Opportunities, and Industry

Involvement

Phil Crosby
SKA Program Development Office
Observing the Universe
 Many Science Questions Remain
• How were the first stars and galaxies formed?

• What is the large scale structure of the

universe? ‘Dark Energy’ ‘Dark
Matter”

• What is the origin and evolution of cosmic

magnetic fields?

• Was Einstein right? Can we detect gravitational

waves?

• Planet formation and the ‘Cradle of Life’

Will we find ET?

• EXPLORATION OF THE UNKNOWN

 The Challenges of Radio Astronomy
• The signals are extremely weak.
– We need huge antennas to capture them
– They need to be in special places

• Astronomers ‘compete’ with noise

– From radio, TV, phones, machines, etc
– From the equipment itself, amplifiers etc

• Signals are buried in the noise

– Need smart techniques to ‘resolve’
– This means huge computing power

• Large amounts of data to handle

– Pushing boundaries in capacity, speed and
storage
SKA Movie – 3 minutes
 Many arrays around the world, but
better instruments needed
ATCA
ALMA
LOFAR

SKA
VLA JWST

IXO
The SKA – “will be the largest scientific instrument on the planet”

• A ‘next generation’ global radio astronomy facility

• To be built in either Southern Africa, or Australia
• Will operate between around 70 MHz to 25 GHz
• 50 times the sensitivity and 8000 times the survey speed of current
instruments
• a collecting area of around 1 million square meters over a vast
unpopulated area
• a combination of 3000-5000 dishes and wide FoV antennas
• will employ beam forming technology on a scale not previously
explored
• Needs data transport system and computing power beyond that
available today
• Will address fundamental questions about the universe
 The SKA Global Network
Over 90 Organisations
Canada
NRC
Laval U
United
Kingdom
U
Sweden
Onsala
Space
Russia
Pushchino
Astro
8 SKA Consortia
Manchest Observat
McGill U er (JBO) ory Space
Centre
Queens U Oxford U Chalmers Poland
U of Tech
Netherlan Torun
U Calgary Cambridg
eU ds Centre
U Montreal for
U Astron Astronom
U Toronto Glasgow y
JIVE
York U Leeds U France Kapteyn
ACURA CASCA Cardiff U Paris Astro Inst Germany
Funding Agencies
Observat Leiden U
NRC ory Max-
Por U Planck
NSERC tug U Gronegan Institute
al d’Orleans for Radio
Astronom Korea
IST Centre y Funding
Spain- National Agencies
Italy Korean VLBI
Ce
Fundacio de la Network
United States of America ntr – Recherch National European Japan
n Alcala Union
CIT / JPL Nat. a e Institute
Scientifiq for Kagoshima U
Astronom National
Cornell U / NAIC y ue Astrophys Governments
ics NAOJ
Harvard U / Smithsonian Centre for Observat OMMIC via Research
Astrophysics ory Councils
MIT / Haystack Observatory U RadioNet China
Valencia
NRAO
NAO, Chinese
Naval Research Lab Academy of
SETI Sciences Funding Agencies
U Cal – Berkley
U Illinois Chinese Academy of
Sciences
U New Mexico
Indian Consortium
U Winsconsin MoST
Raman Research
Virginia Tech
Institute Dept Science & Tech
TATA Inst for Tsing hua U
Radio Astronomy
Funding Agencies Nat. Centre for
Radio Astronomy Funding Agencies
NASA
NSF Dept of Atomic Energy
Dept of Science & Tech

SKA Program Development

Office Australia
CSIRO-
ATNF

• Based at University of ICRAR

Swinburne U
U NSW
New Zealand
Auckland U

Manchester, UK
U Melbourne of Tech
U Sydney
U Adelaide
U Tasmania

• Group of domain specialists U WA

Funding Agencies

• Mission – to deliver a costed

ARC
South
Africa DIISR
NRF CSIRO
U WA Gov

design by 2012
KwaZulu- Funding
Natal Agencies
Dept Science
& Tech
Dept Trade
& Industry
NRF
 The SKA timeline & estimated project costs

• Target constructionSKA cost: • Expected operating

Pathfinders
Reference
Design for Phases 1+2
Preliminary
Complete costs:
Phase 1 SKA-mid+low
Complete
selected complete
 Civil External
SKA specs
works  Salaries (400-500 staff)
Site
 Antennas & RF systems
Engineering
Review of
Select  Power
 Signaldesign transmission  Materials & services
Early Science SKA mid+low
 Signal processing including dark fibre lease
06 | 08 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 |  18 | 20 |
 Software development & Renewal of instrumentation
Concept Des’n computing System hardware
Design
Phase 1 implementation –
low & mid freq
andPhase
computing
2 construction –
mid + low freq

 Design, integration, testing, Concept & Tech Developmentfor(science centres additional)

System design SKA-hi
Phase 3
Phase 3 - SKA-hi -Construction
and management
Establish  € 150 million /year
SKA
 Contingency Organisation

 € 1.5 billion (2007)

 0.1 – 1 Tb/s
Pb/s

Gb/s
 Possible Site Schematic

Comms links

Dishes spread
along spiral
Central
Processing
Facility

Station

Max.
Distance for
Dishes Dense AAs Max. Distance
Dense AA for Central
Sparse AA Power Dist’n
 Concise Picture of Technology Options

• Numbers of dishes (2000-3000) depends on whether Phased Array Feeds

and/or Aperture Arrays are used in the SKA.
• Each technology is characterized by a frequency range and field of view.
 Aperture Array Technology
Production Thinking

ASTRON Prototype – The Netherlands Electronic

Sensor
Courtesy ASTRON, OPAR
Phased Array Feed Prototype

One of three
prototypes
under
development.
 Multi-pixel phased array feeds

from Dave Deboer

 Dishes+Single Pixel Feeds
USA

Allen
Telescope
Array 42x6m
hydroformed
dishes
Canada
prototype 10
m composite South Africa
dish Prototype 15 m
composite dish
 Composite Dish Manufacturing
(Canada)

Final Mould Alignment

rms error: 0.25 mm

rms error: 0.25 mm

Removing from Mould

Mounted on Drive
 Metal Dish Manufacturing
Novel Sheet Metal Structure

12m antenna stretch-formed panels

Patriot Systems
 Wide field-of-view
Base model SKA
Allen Telescope Array
Parkes
 Electrical power – not solved yet

• 30-50MW (or more!) required for full SKA

• Solar potential is high on both sites
• 24/7 coverage is needed (but short breaks OK)
• Requires storage or alternative night-time power source
• Cost likely to be an issue if not subsidized
• It’s a tough environment – temp, dust, remote
• Role for small scale (~ 1MW) systems
• Good project for demonstration of solar technology
The Pre-Cursor Projects
South Africa + 7 countries
Australia
 Spectrum Measurements: 80 MHz – 1.6 GHz

City
Pop. 4 million

Town
Pop. 6,000

Possible
Site

100 MHz 200 MHz

 Industry Opportunities
Summary of Opportunities in the SKA Signal Path

From P. Hall
The SKA – “will be the largest scientific collaboration on the planet”

• To meet the SKA timelines, a very high level of industry involvement

will be needed, especially R & D, and economical mass production and
deployment.

• Broad areas are…

• Siteworks & infrastructure

• SKA Project Support, Tools, Operations & Maintenance

• High volume production & deployment

• Low-medium volume production & deployment

Hntegrated
1
Informatio
2
3
4
5
6
I7
8
T
9
Building
11
10
Fibre
15
Environme
14
13
Electrical
12
Land
17
Infrastruct
16
Remote
18
Site
19
Antenna
22
21
Surveying
20
Image
23
Radio
24
Receiver
25
RF
26
RFI
27
High
29
Computer
28
36
Engineerin
34
33
Advanced
32
Networkin
31
High-spee
30
Systems
Schedulin
38
Integrated
37
Other
40
Transport,
39
Regional
42
44
Transport
43
CT
elecomm
igh-spee
device
/mana
data
distrib
softw
datab
mitiga
perfo
acce
elec
optic
goo
astr
pro
cin
dm
iId
f

What kinds of firms should consider participating in the SKA?

• Information & Communication Technology (ICT) - hardware, software, digital fibre systems, data
management, high-speed / high-volume data processing, control systems, modelling and simulation
systems, networked enabled system deployment & management, integrated circuit design,
fabrication, and test, telecoms systems.

• Engineering Construction & Maintenance (ECM) – building construction, electrical and mechanical
services, R & D services, environmental services, fibre optic, power, civil engineering, land access
consultants, remote infrastructure operations and maintenance, site management & planning,
surveying services.

• Advanced Aerospace & Radar Technology and Equipment – antenna design and manufacture,
image processing, radio astronomy, receiver feed systems, wideband phased arrays, RF devices, RFI
mitigation.

• Advanced Materials and Manufacturing - advanced materials, composites, sheet metal fabrication.

• Systems Integration & Maintenance – project design, execution, interface management, risk
management, scheduling, operations and maintenance of complex distributed systems.

• Transport, Training, and Other Goods & Services – regional support, recruitment and training,
transport and logistics, community consultation and studies, regulatory monitoring.
 Intellectual Property
• SKA has developed a Statement of Intent on IP.
– Signed by organizations participating in the SKA.
– Establishes ground rules on protection, licensing, and donation of foreground and
background IP for the SKA project.

• An IP strategy will be developed, with registered ownership

– Negotiations in the spirit of scientific cooperation.
– Signed by legal entities, when that becomes possible.

• SKA must have access to IP developed in the national &

regional projects:
– Some of this will be generated in industry.
– Where possible, IP licensed early for the SKA, so that it can be used in open
bidding, rather than giving advantage to a particular supplier.
 To Summarise…
• The SKA is an ‘icon’
project – a BIG leap.
• Answers to key science
questions
• Challenges yet to be
solved
• Global collaboration
institutes & industry
• Potential for industry
participation, and ‘spin-
off’ products/IP
opportunities. Thank You

Phil Crosby
SKA Program Development Office