SKA to spearhead capacity in astronomy

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Monday May 2, 2011 00:00

Like South Africa, Botswana believes that there will be growth in scientific research particularly astronomy as well as economic gains through the establishment of the Square Kilometre Array in Southern Africa. Swartz said that the fact that Botswana is a partner in this project shows a spirit of cooperation and confidence in the country to deliver and make the project a success.

South African Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor has said the establishment of the SKA project would be a major facelift to African scientists given the mass exodus of African engineers to well resourced countries upon completion of studies.  Moreover, Pondor said with the project seeking to revolutionise science by providing answers to most fundamental questions that remain about the origin of nature and evolution of the universe could be a major boast to the development of human resource capital and economies as scientists from all over the world would use this facility.  The SKA is a global consent by astronomers to build the most powerful telescope ever, to see back to before the first stars and galaxies formed. It will be a radio telescope - instead of seeing light waves, and will make pictures from radio waves. South Africa, with eight African countries as partners, and Australia have been picked as possible sites to build the SKA. At a recent Botswana-South Africa stakeholder meeting on the SKA, a number of institutions were identified to form the Site Readiness Teams (SRT). Among them is the Botswana Telecommunications Authority with the role to discuss and finalise the non-disclosure agreement. Botswana Telecommunications Corporation will assist in security of data for the project. Other strategic partners are the University of Botswana as well as the Ministry of Science and technology. At the moment there are four scholarships offered to locals under the SKA project aimed at human resources development.

Side Bar* The SKA's total collecting area will be approximately one square kilometre giving 50 times the sensitivity, and 10,000 times the survey speed, of the best current-day telescopes.

* With receptors extending out to distances of 3,000 km from the centre of the telescope, the SKA will address fundamental unanswered questions about our Universe.

* More than 70 institutes in 20 countries, together with industry partners, are participating in the scientific and technical design of the SKA telescope which will be located in either Australia or Southern Africa

* The target construction cost is €1,500 million and construction could start as soon as 2019.