Square Kilometre Array Observatory

[PaulSthcoast]

Hi everyone,

I have always held an interest in radio astronomy.

For those who may also an interest,
or even perhaps looking for a business opportunity.

The Australian Government is seeking suppliers for
The Square Kilometre Array Observatory to be built
in Western Australia.

Links to the sites here:

https://www.industry.gov.au/policies-and-initiatives/co-hosting-the-ska-telescope/helping-to-build-australias-ska-telescope


https://www.industry.gov.au/policies-and-initiatives/co-hosting-the-ska-telescope


Link to the SKAO public website:

https://www.skatelescope.org/the-ska-project/

For mobile browsers click on the tabs to
open directory pages.


Looks like a great project.


Paul.

[mura_gadi]

Been a long journey I was excited by ASKAP funding... The computers and networking for the SKA undertaking are sci-fi like.

But, looks like its ruined the area for parachutists.

[mura_gadi]

The South African MeerKAT didn't have a bad first night earlier this month...

"It's a type of massless cosmic object called a megamaser, and its light has traveled for a jaw-dropping 5 billion light-years to reach us here on Earth."

https://www.sciencealert.com/extreme-megamaser-discovered-shooting-powerful-radio-lasers-from-deep-space

[mswhin63]

I worked on the Murchison Widefield Array for a while and the technology for that was early tech yet produced stunning results.
I was pleased that my efforts help to maintain the system and to help with the obsolescence engineering principles that helped me understand more about the technology.

My work was only casual and was hoping to attain a PHD in either that area or my final year project. I ended up having to take work as the change over to CSIRO to take on the task would not allow Centrelink to remain in my current position. Ended up now as an RF & COMMS Design Engineer for the military now.

ASKAP was only the precursor for tendering, unfortunately, it did not win outright on the final SKA solution but the MWA did and this has commenced recently with changes from the Batwing antennas to the Christmas tree antenna configuration.

The calculations used to get the Christmas tree arrangement to work effectively is a massively complex task and showed how well the engineering went.

Even after leaving CIRA and the MWA, I still keep looking at the system and how it is still running. I occasionally still have the live status but it appears the system will be cutting over very soon - http://telemetry-static.mwa128t.org/liveplots/public.html