Ten research centres and eleven Spanish companies will take part in the design of SKA, the biggest radio telescope in the world
(2014-03-27)
The teams responsible for the definitive design of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) were announced today. This starts a new phase in the construction of the biggest and most sensitive telescope in the world. More than three hundred and fifty scientists and engineers from one hundred institutions in eighteen countries will be responsible for the definitive design phase, a scientific and technological challenge involving twenty one Spanish teams. Like other projects of similar size--the Large Hadron Collider, for example, or certain space projects--SKA has been divided into batches of work--eleven in all--which will be managed by international panels of experts. The eleven designated panels will have three years to find optimal solutions for the development of SKA, which will begin in 2017. "This is a level of commitment seen only in revolutionary projects!" says Phil Diamond, director general of the SKA organization. The funds obtained for this phase add up to one hundred and twenty million Euros, of which two and a half million come from Spanish institutions. "Spanish participation is an indicator of excellence for Spanish research centres, universities and businesses," says Lourdes Verdes-Montenegro, scientist at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC) and head researcher at the VIA-SKA project, financed by the Spanish department of economy and competition (MINECO) and intended to study and promote Spanish technological participation in SKA. "In only two years we have gone from proposing one-time collaborations to taking part in almost all the consortiums and, for lack of specific funding, research groups and businesses have vowed to grant two and a half million Euros for research from their own resources. It is a victory for the Spanish teams," the researcher concludes. Spanish researchers and engineers will participate in the design of antennas, data transmission, signal processing and correlation, software for scientific data processing, and telescope management and monitoring software; they will also partake in the supply of energy for the infrastructure and contribute their experience in the field of renewable energies. The Spanish research centres involved in the design phase are The Institute of Physics of Cantabria (IFCA-CSIC), the Department of Industrial and Telecommunication Engineering of the University of Cantabria (DICOM-UC), the Public University of Navarra (UPNA), the Integrated Systems Laboratory of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), the National Astronomical Observatory (OAN-IGN), the University of Granada (UGR), the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), the National Centre for Supercomputation (BSC), the Supercomputation Centre Foundation of Castilla y León (FCSCL) and the Centre for Energetic, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT). The eleven technological businesses are: TTI norte, Anteral, DAS Photonics, 7Solutions, ISDEFE, GTD (through its German branch GTD GmbH), CSP Sunless (Vinci engineering), Aora Solar Spain, Torresol Energy, Arraela and iGrid-TD. Source: http://www.iaa.es/content/ten-research-centres-and-eleven-spanish-companies-will-take-part-design-ska-biggest-radio-te
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