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Defence firm BAE Systems is helping to project manage the development of the world’s largest radio telescope.
The company has signed a two year statement of mutual interest (SOMI) to support the €1.5 billion Square Kilometre Array (SKA) multinational science project.
The telescope will collect data released by gas clouds after the Big Bang, giving vital clues as to how the universe was formed and whether there might be life on other planets.
The SKA, which will be operational by 2024, will link thousands of radio telescope dishes and other antennas together across a wide area. The signals from the radio wave receptors will be combined to create a giant virtual radio telescope, claimed to be larger than any other radio observatory built to date and 50 times more sensitive.
BAE Systems’ engineers based in Cowes, Isle of Wight and Chelmsford, Essex, are lending their project management skills and expertise to the SKA Program Development Office (SPDO) at the University of Manchester to ensure the project is delivered as effectively as possible. The firm will also give advice and support to the SKA development team to ensure the project is delivered on-time and reaches its research goals.
Les Gregory, mission systems radar director for BAE Systems in the UK, said: “We think we can add value because some of the techniques that are being deployed here are the sort of techniques we have in some of our radar systems.
“We have learnt a lot of lessons over the years in building not only big projects, but projects that tend to have characteristics which haven’t been done before. A lot of what we do, a lot of the lessons learnt and the way we go about doing projects will be of relevance and value for the SKA.”
The project is currently at its last stages of system design, with the detailed design phase set to start in 2012. South Africa and Australia are bidding to host the telescope, with the decision made next year by a panel of international astronomers. Construction is expected to start in 2016.
The length of the project is long, with the telescope not going online until 2024. Gregory says this is similar to the duration of defence projects BAE Systems has worked on in the past. “From a defence industry perspective, the sorts of timescales that are being contemplated are not unduly long if you want to build a submarine, or a new destroyer or an unmanned combat aircraft,” he said
While the evolution of the universe is the main focus of the telescope, the SKA team says that there will also be engineering benefits that come from the project. Professor Richard Schilizzi, SKA project director, said: “There will be enormous benefit from designing and constructing [the array] and there will be other benefits that feed through into the information and communication technologies industry.”
BAE Systems also hope its work on the project will inspire young people and create interest in science, technology engineering and mathematics subjects. “We think this is mega science on an unprecedented scale and we are keen to get as much traction and use this as part of our overall education programme for the company,” said Gregory.
