Botswana co-hosts biggest science project in the world

When completed in 2024, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), as the project is dubbed, will be made up of 3,000 dishes, each 15 metres wide, together with many more antennas, that will stretch over 3,000 km. In southern Africa, the central location will be at the Karoo site in the Northern Cape region of South Africa, about 95 km from Carnarvon, with further dishes located in South Africa itself and in neighbouring African countries - Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Madagasgar, Mauritius, Kenya, and Ghana.

For Australia, the core site is proposed to be at Mileura Station, about 100 km west of Meekathara in Western Australia. Other dishes will be distributed over the Australian continent with the possibility of extension into New Zealand.  The  $3.1 billion telescope, which has been described as "the biggest science project in the world", has been conceptualised since 1991, and is expected to begin construction in 2016.