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MeerKAT and SKA

PARLIAMENTARY PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE 21 AUGUST 2013

The President at SIP 16 (SKA and MeerKAT)

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Delivered over the past 12 months (1)

• PICC– MeerKAT and SKA are SIP16

• KAT 7– Stable, >80% availability, science publications– Engineering development for MeerKAT

• MeerKAT– On target– Dish contract issued– Receiver development contract issued

• Infrastructure– All relevant contracts issued

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Delivered over the past 12 months (1)

• Protection of the site– Declared and regulated core areas– Consultation process ongoing for central areas

• Innovation– DOME (IBM and ASTRON) collaboration initiated– Intel and CISCO collaboration– Portfolio of commercialisation projects developed

• Staffing– Filled vacant posts

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Delivered over the past 12 months (1)

• HCD– 53 new grants– Total 492 grants from 2005– By 1 April 2013, graduated 33 PhD and 92 MSc– 24 bursaries to Grade 8 and 9 students to Carnarvon

High School from other towns– Hosted several conferences and summer schools

• SKA Pre-construction (design and prototypes)– Leading two consortia– Participate in almost all others– Involving RSA industry– Taking on new staff for work packages

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Delivered over the past 12 months (1)

• SKA Organisation– SKA Board formed

– Negotiations ongoing

– RSA arrangements with other government departments

– Collaboration with African partners

• AVN– Ghana and Kenya established space institutes to work on SKA /

AVN

– AVN team with many interns at Pinelands and HartRAO

– Developed training telescope and materials and courses

– Royal Society grant for Ghana PhD student and MSc courses

– Ghana (Vodafone) and Kenya (France Telecom) allocated 30m dishes for AVN plus buildings

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Delivered over the past 12 months (1)

• PAPER– 128 antennas by September– New computing– Routine observations starting

• CBASS– Receiver being commissioned at HartRAO

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Expected over next 12 months

• MeerKAT– Dishes on site and commissioned (see

schedule)

• Infrastructure– All contracts completed

• Protection of the site– Fully implemented core and central area

protection– Tender for alternative communication system

for the area8

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Expected over next 12 months

• Staffing– Complete recruitment for vacancies– Fully implement staff development and intern

programmes

• SKA Pre-construction (design and prototypes)– Sign consortium agreements– Deliver concept designs to Preliminary Design

Review stage

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Expected over next 12 months

• SKA Organisation– Branding– Complete hosting agreement– Finalise project agreement including funding

agreement

• AVN– Covert Ghana dish– Begin conversion of Kenya dish– Construct Mozambique telescope– Train technicians

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Expected over next 12 months

• HCD– Take on further students– Focus on artisans and FET training– Expand programme in Africa with external

funding (AERAP?)– Astronomy Big Data programmes funded and

running

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Expected over next 12 months

• PAPER– Detection of the Epoch of Re-ionisation?

• CBASS– Operational

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Challenges: training and outreach

• SKA SA Human Capital Development Programme has awarded 492 grants since 2005 for university and FET training and 24 bursaries for school learners to do maths and science in Carnarvon

• SKA SA staff development programme and AVN intern programme

• PICC wants all SIPS to increase their training by x3 (not funded)

• SKA SA outreach / science promotion to take 3% of project budget

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AERAP

• European Parliament Written Declaration to support Radio Astronomy in Africa

• They have established the Africa-Europe Radio Astronomy Platform to mobilize funding and collaboration

• Working with the European Parliament and Commission and with European and African astronomers on projects

• Possible major new funding instruments14

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Other things we do…

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SKA Organisation – institutional arrangements

• Currently registered as a non-profit company in the UK

• Agreement that it must change to an international organisation– SKA Board Strategy Committee investigating

whether it should be a treaty organisation– Merge with existing organisation or start a

new one?– What kind of international organisation if not a

treaty organisation?16

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Current SKA negotiations

• Hosting agreement between SKA Organisation and RSA

• Project agreement between all the member governments

• Funding model – how much does each member country pay? How much in cash and how much in kind?

• Procurement policy• Valuation of in-kind contributions (especially

MeerKAT)• Governance model for the SKA construction

phase 17

SKA in Africa and Australia

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Africa (mid-frequency)

Australia (low-frequency+ mid-survey)

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SKA split site

• SKA Phase 1 (SKA1)– SKA-mid: 64 MeerKAT dishes + 190 SKA1

dishes in Northern Cape– SKA-low: low frequency aperture array in W

Australia– SKA-Survey: 36 Australia SKA Precursor

(ASKAP) dishes + 60 SKA1 dishes

• SKA Phase 2 (SKA2)– SKA dish array in Africa– SKA mid frequency aperture array in N Cape– SKA low frequency aperture array in Australia 19

Integration of MeerKAT and ASKAP into SKA Phase 1 (SKA1)

• Split site based on integration of MeerKAT into SKA-Mid dish array and ASKAP (Australia) into SKA-Survey

• Timescale for integration being negotiated - probably not before ~2020 – 2021

• Plenty of time for MeerKAT science –especially with new, better sensitivity

• Great science with MeerKAT crucial for SKA (and Africa)

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Importance of MeerKAT

• Widely recognised as world-leading• Complete MeerKAT• Carry out all or most of the science

programme before integration• This will consolidate and strengthen RSA’s

position• Good science results will strengthen case

for the SKA• “They will have to come to Africa”

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Roles and responsibilities

• Roles and responsibilities of the SKA Office and of members still to be finalized - decision will probably be taken mid-2014

• SKA Organisation will probably own the telescope; NRF will probably own the site (and other telescopes, such as PAPER / HERA)

• We proposed that SKA SA construct and operate SKA Phase 1 (SKA1) in the RSA on behalf of the SKA Organisation. CSIRO in Australia to do the same.

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Official SKA phases and dates

• Request for Proposals for SKA design work packages 2013

• International consortia will start work Oct 2013• Critical Design Review second half 2016• Construction tenders 2017• Dish and Low Frequency Aperture Array

prototypes on sites (N Cape and W Australia respectively) 2016

• SKA1 construction 2018 – 2023• Detailed design of SKA Phase 2 2018 – 2021

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SKA design work packages

• SKA SA leads work packages on– Acceptance, Integration and Verification – Infrastructure Africa

• We didn’t push to lead other work packages

• SKA SA plays a key role (especially system engineering) in most other work packages – puts great strain on our people

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SKA Cost

• Acquisition cost (capex and NRE)– Capped by Board in July 2013

• Operations and maintenance over ~50 years– Probably ~8% of capex per year

• Costs to be covered by members of the SKA Organisation

• Other contributions possible – EU?

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SKA Phase 1 (SKA1) cost cap

• Capital cost capped at €650 million (2017-2023)

• Design work packages will now design to cost but maintain science excellence

• Cost cap will require some trade-offs• Cost of SKA Phase 2 will be clear after

2018

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PAPER: built by our trainee technicians

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Project with US NRAO, Berkeley, Virginia, Pennsylvania

128 antennas on site November 2013 UKZN and UWC involved in the science

C-BASS

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Karoo OVRO

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Karoo Radio Astronomy Reserve

500 km

MeerKAT

• MeerKAT construction is on track• SKA pre-cursor• Components: infrastructure, antennas,

receivers, correlator, computing, data archive, (remote) control and monitoring

• Major focus at present• Science from 2017• Integration with SKA around 2021-2022?

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KAT 7 Current Status

• Fully Operational

• Seven cryogenically-cooled receivers

• >80% availability

• Has already produced publishable science

• Science demand is increasing

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KAT 7 Science

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Radio Astronomy Reserve

• Concept design review Aug 2012

• Preliminary design review April 2013

• 1st antenna on site Dec 2013

• Antenna 1 qualified and CDR: 28 Feb 2014

• Antenna 2 acceptance testing completed: 28 March 2014

• Array release 1 (Antenna 1-4) I&V complete: 29 June 2015

• Array release 1 science commissioning complete: 28 Sept 2015

• Array release 2 (Antenna 5-32) I&V complete: 14 March 2016

• Array release science commissioning complete: 13 June 2016

• Array release 3 (Antenna 33-64) I&V complete: 15 Dec 2016

• Full array available for science: 17 April 2017

CDR = critical design review

I&V = Integration and Verification - ready for science commissioning

Science commissioning completed = ready to do science

MeerKAT Timeline

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Antennas/DishesAntennas/DishesAntennas/DishesAntennas/Dishes

Contract awarded July 2012 to a South African company with backing of one of the best international antenna suppliers• SKA SA did concept design• Detailed design in Germany/USA• SKA SA owns all IP and license to

background IP related to design• 75% local content as a contractual

condition• IP transfer to local industry• Skills development within local industry

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CASPER / ROACH

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Innovation

• DOME collaboration with IBM and ASTRON (Netherlands) on exascalecomputing and green computing

• Collaboration with Intel• Working with CISCO on collaboration with

NMMU and others• Developing ROACH platform• Collaboration with RSA company on data

storage low-cost solution36

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Site Complex

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All-weather landing strip on site

Above and Right: Slurry layerunderway on all-weatherlanding strip

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Grid Power & Data connectivity

Above: 33kV grid power line and optic fibre cable to site (100km

length)

Above: Upgrade of Karoo substation from 5MVA to 10MVA capacity

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Optic Fibre Network

Above: Carnarvon Point of Presence (POP) station (SANReN/SKA

interface)

Above: Broadband InfraCO terrestrial backbone

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Local Outreach through CSI

Carnarvon High SchoolCyberlab• 35 computers, equipment and

software donated by USAASAand Microsoft South Africa tothe value of R1million

• Optic fibre link to the schoolprovided by Optic 1

• Teachers trained andMathematics, Physical Scienceand ICT subjects conducted incyberlab

• Science Laboratory equipmenthas also been donated to thevalue of R50k to schools inCarnarvon and Williston

•Cyberlab: Carnarvon High School

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Local Outreach through CSI

E-technology roll-out• The SKA SA has established a

partnership with Intel South Africa

• 350 laptops to be rolled out to 5schools in Carnarvon, VanWyksvleiand Williston

• Mobile Science equipment carts tobe rolled out to these schools

• Intel will be providing support andteacher training

• Curriculum for all grades will beincluded on laptops and available forteachers to use in class

•Intel teacher training: Carnarvon

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Local Outreach through CSI

Community Knowledge Centre• A CKC in Carnarvon is being established by the SKA

SA in collaboration with Siyafunda, CISCO and IntelSA

• The purpose of the CKC will be to provide the localcommunity with access to the internet and to providebusiness, life-skills and entrepreneurship training

• CBI Electric has provided data connectivity to the CKC• 15 computers have been donated by CISCO and

Siyafunda will provide the software, programmes andtraining curricula

• The SKA SA has appointed a centre manager tooversee the management of the CKC

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Grants from SKA SA Human Capital Development Programme

Number of bursaries, fellowships and grants by year

9 1429

49 56 64

96122

53

492

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Total

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Number of grants by academic level

5 2 2 3 1

4474

117

2042

102

9 11 17 13 127

492

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

550

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Number of grants by nationality

371

86

35

492

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

South African Foreign African National Non African Total

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Grants awarded to South Africans

57

154

65

95

371

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Black Women Black Men White Women White Men Total

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Grants by gender

150

342

492

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Women Men Total48

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Grants by field of study

310

182

492

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Physics / Astrophysics / Astronomy Engineering Total

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Schools Programme

• SKA SA has worked with the schools in the towns near the SKA site since 2005 to improve maths and science education

• Facilitated the recruitment of qualified mathematics and science teachers, the construction and equipping of a cyberlaband science laboratories

• Make Carnarvon a hub of excellence for maths and science – it is the only high school in the area teaching mathsand science)

• 24 Grade 9 students from Williston and Vanwyksvlei have been awarded bursaries by SKA SA to study at Carnarvon High School, astronomy talks, career guidance, teacher training, role modeling, holiday programmes, sky viewing sessions, field trips and exchange programmes

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A big community of researchers• 2003 - 10 people in Southern Africain radio astronomy science or

technology

• By 2013, as a direct result of the SKA SA project:

– More than 150 engineers, scientists, technicians and artisans working

for the South African SKA Project.

– Nearly 200 practicing radio astronomy researchers (science and

engineering) in RSA

– Nearly 70 technicians and artisans

– Others in Africa working on SKA but not supported by SKA SA

– More than 50 students graduate PhD or MSc in the next 2 years

– Bursary programme continues until at least 2017

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AVN Large antenna conversions into VLBI

telescopes or new-builds(currently conversions in Ghana and Kenya, in situ)

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AVN Scaled Training Telescope (ASTT)(“Baby” telescope)

Science

Infrastructure (including radio

observatories, high

performance

computing

facilities, etc.)

Mozambique Training Telescope (7.6m diameter, near HartRAO on Telkom

site, infrastructure)

AVN Science using computing clusters (proposed - mining data from existing observatory archives)

FOCUS Network in Africa (Awaiting outcome of EU application, collaboration with

project EU-HOU: Hands-on-universe, Europe. Bringing

frontline interactive radio astronomy to the

classroom, building investment in radio astronomy to

facilitate greater dissemination of science, technology and

innovation.)Other collaborations (e.g. Royal Society, Max Planck, ASTRON, Manchester)

Opportunities for talented Africans to work with global

institutions

Technicians Training Program(7 Ghana trainees - launch pilot program October 2013)

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NKUTUNSE - GHANA

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Mozambique visit 1-2 Aug 2013

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Ministers Hanekom and Pelembe exchange signed record of discussions – agreement reached on infrastructure costs for

Maluana training telescope

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Kenya (Longonot)

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• Kenya working group meeting and site visit Nov 2012 at Longonot (picture);

• Agreed action items for Kenya government to unlock technical programme:

• Progress now monitored •through regular telecons• Negotiations and agreement •between Orange and Kenya •Government under way for •use of the site

• Planned science data processingworkshop early 2014.

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www.ska.ac.za

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Thank you.