SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa bids against Australia to host the world's most powerful radio telescopes
Record ID:
454587
SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa bids against Australia to host the world's most powerful radio telescopes
- Title: SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa bids against Australia to host the world's most powerful radio telescopes
- Date: 31st March 2010
- Summary: CARNARVON, NORTHERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA (MARCH 30, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF RADIO TELESCOPE DISHES POINTING TO SKY SKA SOUTH AFRICA SQUARE KILOMETRE ARRAY SIGN ON BUILDING BESIDE RADIO TELESCOPE DISHES VIEW OF LANDSCAPE TELESCOPE POINTING TO SKY MORE OF TELESCOPES VARIOUS OF TELESCOPE DISH MOVING INTO POSITION SOUTH AFRICAN MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OFFICIALS STAND BESIDE TEL ESCOPE VARIOUS OF SOUTH AFRICA'S MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, NALEDI PANDOR SPEAKING TO OFFICIALS AND MEDIA FROM PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOUTH AFRICA'S MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, NALEDI PANDOR SAYING: "The SKA is one of the great scientific projects of the 21st century. It's a new generation telescope which will be fifty times more sensitive than any of the existing radio telescopes currently in operation in 25 countries around the world. We call it our grand challenge in the department of science and technology. It's a grand challenge such as the grand challenge of needing to find new solution to the disease of malaria, needing to find a vaccine to the HIV / AIDS disease. It's a huge endeavour that we're undertaking." POSTER SHOWING, "KAROO ARRAY TELESCOPE (meerKAT) ON WALL (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOUTH AFRICA'S MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, NALEDI PANDOR SAYING: "We are one of two potential hosts chosen out of 6 bidders. We initially put a bid forward for the square kilometre array. We believe we have a good chance at being successful at this. The central location will be here right outside Carnarvon. There will also be other parts of the array as far as 3000 kilometres away from this site in 8 other African countries." MORE OF RADIO TELESCOPE DISHES POINTING TO THE SKY
- Embargoed: 15th April 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: South Africa
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: Science / Technology
- Reuters ID: LVACUREGE97IQ6GTA2SLVKIAQED0
- Story Text: South Africa in a bidding race against Australia to host the world's most powerful radio telescopes.
South Africa showed off it's new telescopes at Carnavon in the Northern Cape province on Tuesday (March 30) where it hopes to build more should it win the bid to host the world's most powerful radio telescope.
South Africa is on a bidding race against Australia to host the telescopes. An international panel is expected to announce the winner of the two shortlisted continents in 2012, enabling that country to host the 1.5 billion euro SquareKilometre Array (SKA) telescope, which will be 50 times more sensitive and 10,000 times faster than any other radio imaging telescope built.
The country's Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said this was one of their most ambitious projects they have undertaken.
"The SKA is one of the great scientific projects of the 21st century. It's a new generation telescope which will be fifty times more sensitive than any of the existing radio telescopes currently in operation in 25 countries around the world. We call it our grand challenge in the department of science and technology. It's a grand challenge such as the grand challenge of needing to find new solution to the disease of malaria, needing to find a vaccine to the HIV / AIDS disease. It's a huge endeavour that we're undertaking." said Naledi Pandor.
The SKA telescope will eventually consist of an extensive array of about 3,000 antennas, half of them concentrated at the main site on the outskirts of Carnavon in the Northern Cape. The rest will be distributed across sub-Saharan Africa, with three antenna stations, each with 30 individual dishes, planned for Namibia, four in Botswana and one each in Mozambique, Ghana, Mauritius, Madagascar, Kenya and Zambia.
"We are one of two potential hosts chosen out of 6 bidders. We initially put a bid forward for the SquareKilometre Array. We believe we have a good chance at being successful at this. The central location will be here right outside Carnarvon. There will also be other parts of the array as far as 3000 kilometres away from this site in 8 other African countries," said Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor.
Pandor said South Africa had allocated 234 million rand ($31.73 million) over the next three years for MeerKAT's development and foresaw no problems in funding the larger SKA.
The SKA telescope will also be able to scan for alien life in distant galaxies, shed light on so-called "dark energy" which is causing the universe to expand and probe the first black holes and stars.
SKA is expected to be fully operational by 2022 with an expected life span of at least 50 years. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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