ska: the global science facility for the 21st century
TRANSCRIPT
SKA: the global science facility for the 21st Century
Alistair McPherson, Deputy Director-General
Nice: 10th December 2015
Great Observatories for the coming decades E-‐ELT/TMT/GMT: optical/IR
Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA): mm/submm
James Webb Space Telescope: NIR
Square Kilometre Array: cm/m
• SKA: will be one of the great physics machines of 21st Century and, when complete, one of the world’s engineering marvels.
• Science goals: – Fundamental physics: Gravity, Dark Energy, Cosmic
Magnetism – Astrophysics: Cosmic Dawn, First galaxies, galaxy
assembly and evolution; proto-planetary discs, biomolecules, SETI + much more
– The unknown: transients; +…???? • Broader science range than any other science
facility on Earth.
SKA Science
• 135 self-contained chapters; > 1200 authors • Published electronically in Proceedings of Science,
May 2015 • Hardcopy: 2 volumes, total weight 9kg!
SKA Science Book:
SKA Governance
SKA Organisation: 10 countries, more to join
Australia (DoI&S) Canada (NRC-‐HIA) China (MOST) India (DAE) Italy (INAF) Netherlands (NWO) New Zealand (MED) South Africa (DST) Sweden (Chalmers) UK (STFC)
Observers: • France • Germany • Japan • Malta • Portugal • Spain • USA
Contacts: • Brazil • Ireland • Korea • Russia • Switzerland
SKA Governance + current funding: UK not-for-profit company.
Members
Board of Directors
SKA Office ~50 staff
Director-‐General
11 Design Consortia ~500 Scientists & Engineers
Strategy & Business Dev
Cmte
Finance Cmte
Executive Cmte
Science & Eng Advisory Cmte
Cash
In-‐kind
• SKA Member governments will negotiate the establishment of an intergovernmental organisation (IGO), similar to ESO/CERN/ITER/ESA.
• Will provide: – Long-‐term government commitment and funding stability – Availability of Privileges and Immunities from members – ‘Freedom to operate’, specifically through procurement process
• First formal negotiation meeting: 14-‐16 October, Rome. – Draft treaty text exists – Draft procurement policy, draft financial protocol + more, all exist
Evolve to Inter-governmental Organisation
• Rome: 14-‐16 October; Minister Vicente (Italy) – Chair. • All 10 countries present, • Agenda:
– Draft text of convention – Working groups:
• Financial Protocol • Privileges and Immunities • Procurement and IPR • Operations and Access
• 2 more meetings scheduled: – 26 – 28 January; 19 – 21 April
IGO: formal negotiations
• SKA Board has approved a science access policy and is finalising a procurement policy: – That access should be based on scientific merit for scientists within Member states, evaluated via a single time assignment process
– As an international organisation SKA will implement a juste retour procurement policy, ensuring that contributing Member States receive construction contracts.
Science & Industry Access Policy
SKA Design status
International Design Teams• Project Management and System Engineering based at Jodrell Bank, Manchester, UK • ~500 scientists & engineers in institutes and industry in 11 Member countries of the SKA
>€150M design effort – fully funded
Status of Design activities• All 9 consortia have completed Preliminary Design Reviews – Massive effort – 100s documents – Some issues, as expected, but closing off now
– Detailed design moving to Stage 2; • Operations Concepts Review: Q3
2015 • Engineering Meeting, Penticton,
Canada, Nov 9-‐13. • System Review Q1 2016
• Critical Design Reviews planned in August/September 2017
High-level SKA Schedule
20162015 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Critical Design Reviews (elements then system)
SKA1 construction proposal & approval
Procurement
SKA1 early science
SKA1 construction
SKA2 detailed design
SKA2 procurement
SKA2 construction starts
Pre-‐construction Stage 2
IGO agreements negotiated and completeKey Doc Set & Prospectus
Formal negotiations
Ratification of AgreementsIGO operational and able to centrally contract
Andrea Casson, August 2015
Advanced Instrumentation Prog.
KEY: Blue = SKA1 science & engineering; orange = policy; green = SKA2
PDR (MFAA and WBSPF)
Detailed design
SKA1 operations
Critical dates: • Q3 2017: CDRs • Q4 2017: IGO operational • Q2 2018: construction
approval • 2018…. : procurement &
construction • 2020: early science
The SKA Observatory
3 sites; 2 telescopes; HQ 1 Observatory
Phase 1 Construction: 2018 – 2023 Construction cost: €650M
Operations cost: ~€75M/yr, TBD
MeerKat integrated ASKAP incorporated, subject to negotiation
Advanced Instrumentation Programme
Revised project scope: March 2015
SKA HQ: Jodrell Bank, UK
SKA-MID, Karoo, South Africa:
Phase 1: 200 15m dishes spread over 150km (2018 – 2023) Phase 2: 2500 dishes spread over 3500km (2025 – 2033)
The Karoo • 800km north of Cape Town • Radio quiet protected by
Astronomy Advantage Act • Building on MeerKAT
SKA-LOW, Murchison, Australia:
Phase 1: 130,000 dipole antennas over 80km (2018 – 2023) Phase 2: 500,000 dipoles over 250km (2025 – 2033)
Murchison Desert • 800km north of Perth • Very low popn density • Radio quiet zone
protected by ACMA • ASKAP and MWA
precursors
• SKA1–MID, –LOW: BMax = 156, 65 km
SKA1 Configurations
ASKAP
SKA1-‐Low
SKA1-‐Mid
Sensitivity Comparison
Survey Speed Comparison
Image Quality Comparison
• Single SKA1 track equivalent to VLA A+B+C+D + E+A+
• “Structural” dynamic range of ~1000:1 rather than ~3:1 per track
• Beam quality ~100 times better than VLA
• SKA Observatory will deliver quality-‐controlled, calibrated, science quality data to archives in Perth and/or Cape Town.
• It will not provide added-‐value software, pipelines etc which will be required to extract maximal science.
• Teams awarded Key Science time will be expected to find resources to develop additional tools
• Discussions on-‐going for nations to establish Regional Data Centres/Regional Science & Engineering Centres to help support SKA science and development engineering.
Delivering science
• SKA: will be one of the great physics machines of 21st Century and, when complete, one of the world’s engineering marvels.
• Science goals: – Fundamental physics: Gravity, Dark Energy, Cosmic Magnetism
– Astrophysics: Cosmic Dawn, First galaxies, galaxy assembly and evolution; proto-‐planetary discs, biomolecules, SETI + much more
– The unknown: transients; +…???? • Broader science range than any other science facility on Earth.
SKA Science
Headline Science with SKA1 and SKA2
SKA1 SKA2Use fast radio bursts to uncover the missing
"normal" matter in the universe.
Fast radio bursts as unique probes of fundamental cosmological parameters and
intergalactic magnetic fields.
Study feedback from the most energetic cosmic explosions and the disruption of stars
by super-massive black holes.
Exploring the unknown: new exotic astrophysical phenomena in discovery phase
space.
Star formation rates (10 M_Sun/yr to z ~ 4). Star formation rates (10 M_Sun/yr to z ~ 10).
Resolved star formation astrophysics (sub-kpc active regions at z ~ 1).
Resolved star formation astrophysics (sub-kpc active regions at z ~ 6).
Constraints on DE, modified gravity, the distribution & evolution of matter on super-
horizon scales: competitive/superior to Euclid.
Constraints on DE, modified gravity, the distribution & evolution of matter on super-
horizon scales: redefines state-of-art.
Primordial non-Gaussianity and the matter dipole: 2x Euclid.
Primordial non-Gaussianity and the matter dipole: 10x Euclid.
Direct imaging of EoR structures (z = 6 - 12). Direct imaging of Cosmic Dawn structures (z = 12 - 30).
Power spectra of Cosmic Dawn down to arcmin scales, possible imaging at 10 arcmin. First glimpse of the Dark Ages (z > 30).
Cosmology & Dark Energy
Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization
The Transient Radio Sky
Galaxy Evolution probed in the Radio Continuum
Headline Science with SKA1 and SKA2
• Re-baselining accomplished • HQ selected; design of new building(s) underway • PDRs largely complete, some Deltas underway • Operations planning proceeding • L0 Science Requirements complete; KSP engagement has
begun • IGO negotiations underway – large number of underlying
documents exist • SKAO budget for 2016 – 2017 secured.
Progress in Past Year
• Coordination of global design effort is major effort – Communications (outwards, inwards and across) – Trust and respect – Processes – industry standard proj. mgmt and sys.eng. – Tools
• Timeliness – Achieving the schedule is a stretch target – Individual consortium not achieving goals can affect WHOLE
project. – Planning and scheduling drives funding of design effort.
Challenges remain
• SKA Industry engagement is anticipated to fall broadly into three areas:
• Strategic positioning (specialist exchanges and training, technology mapping, programmatic information and tools); NOW
• Industry development (business creation, IP generation, teaming, supply chain development); SOON
• Industry participation; (contracts awarded, jobs and skills maintained and expanded, industry collaboration with academia). LATER
Why Get Engaged Now?
And there’s real money:
• Pre-Construction Phase - €120 million
• SKA (Phase 1) - €650 million • SKA (Phase 2) - >€2 billion (estimate)
Potential Roles for Industry
System Element Sub-‐system products/servicesAntennas • Low-‐cost, mass manufacturing of small to medium diameter dishes
• Low-‐cost, mass manufacturing of low and mid frequency aperture arrays • Manufacture of wide-‐band single pixel feeds
Receptors • Broadband, active, phased array feeds • Low-‐noise integrated receivers for both cryogenic and uncooled applications • Cryogenic cooling systems & dewars for Rx electronics • Decade bandwidth feed antennas for dishes
Signal/data Transmission • High-‐speed (Tb/s) digital fibre optic links for distance regimes (including output from Science Data processor) extending from 100 m to >3000 k. (NB existing provision in country already). Routers & Switches.
• On-‐site digital fibre optic distribution systems. • Super accurate clocks (Frequency reference, synchronisation & timing systems) • Routers and switches
High performance computing (Beamformer & Correlator) not including software (see below)
• Low-‐cost, high-‐speed (Gs/s) analogue to digital converters • Signal Data Processing (image & non-‐image) systems • High-‐speed digital signal processing engines (Pb/s) and ultra-‐fast
supercomputing (at exaflop rates) • HPC housing, rack cooling & reticulation systems • Mega-‐scale data storage systems
Monitoring & Control • Software engineering for robust, intelligent, array control • RFI monitoring equipment • Cameras (visual monitoring) • Tropospheric monitoring kit if not omitted (see ECP)
Domains of Engagement
System Element Sub-‐system products/servicesRemote Site Infrastructure • Provision of site infrastructure (Access, site monitoring infrastructure,
foundations) in South Africa • Provision of site infrastructure (Access, site monitoring infrastructure,
foundations) in Australia • Buildings (new and alterations to precursor) • Communications systems (emergency and administrative within buildings) • Water & waste treatment systems , Power distribution on site
Site Power Engineering & Provision • Provision of MW scale power in South Africa (NB Hosting Agreement deliverable)
• Provision of MW scale power in Australia (NB Hosting Agreement deliverable)
Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) Services
• Mega/ Mid-‐scale Project Management • Systems integration, Systems verification & test • Test equipment • Through life maintenance and support • Integration of precursors (AIV) • Construction camps
RFI Mitigation • Expert consultancy in RFI detection and mitigation methodsSoftware & Firmware • High performance data processing software & algorithms for data
packages. • Software for storage, retrieval and archiving. • High dynamic range image formation using sparsely-‐sampled Fourier plane
dataOther buildings/facilities (Hosting Agreement(s) deliverables)
• Science Data Processing (SDP) Centres (non-‐remote facility) • Engineering Operations centres
• Momentum in SKA excellent • SKA science well-defined, prioritisation for design
complete • Detailed design proceeding well; normal project
issues but no show-stoppers • Formal negotiations to establish a treaty
organisation for SKA started
Summary
www.skatelescope.org