📋 Tender Overview
The start of the international observatory signals a new age for radio astronomy. The SKA Observatory a new intergovernmental radio astronomy organization opened on February 4 2021 as part of the first meeting of the Observatory Advisory Council.The new observatory called SKAO Square Kilometer Array Observatory is only the second intergovernmental organization dedicated to astronomy. The SKAOs headquarters are in Great Britain on the grounds of the Jodrell Bank World Heritage Site of UNESCO with stations of the telescope network in Australia and in South Africa. The tasks of the SKAO include the construction and operation of the two largest and most complex radio telescope networks planned to date to answer fundamental questions about our universe.The SKAO is a global collaboration between member states to build and operate an innovative radio telescope to answer fundamental questions about our universe. Its first two telescopes the two largest and most complex radio telescope networks of all are being built in Australia and South Africa with later expansion in both countries and other African partner countries. The SKA telescopes will enable novel science and together with other state-of-the-art research facilities fundamental knowledge about our universe in areas such asFacilitating the formation and evolution of galaxies fundamental physics under extreme conditions and the origin of life. By developing innovative technologies and contributing to global societal challenges SKAO will also play a role in finding answers to the United Nations sustainable development goals. The current SKAO member countries are Australia Great Britain Italy the Netherlands Portugal and South Africa. Other participating countries have observer status and are going through national processes in order to be able to join the SKAO as a member state in the future.The SKAO telescope in South Africa will be composed of 197 individual parabolic mirrors each 15 meters in diameter in the Karoo semi-desert near Cape Town. 64 of these antennas are currently operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory SARAO under the name MeerKAT . The telescope network in Australia is composed of a total of 131072 individual antennas each 2 meter high which are set up at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization CSIRO.The creation of the SKAO comes after a decade of detailed engineering studies the establishment of scientific priorities and the development of operational guidelines under the direction of its predecessor the SKA organization with the support of more than 500 engineers over a thousand scientists and dozens of policy makers in more than 20 countries. It is the result of more than 30 years of thought research and development since the first discussions about building a next generation radio telescope.The first meeting of the SKAO Advisory Board follows the signing of the SKA Agreement Convention establishing the SKA Observatory on March 13 2019 in Rome and the subsequent ratification by Australia Italy the Netherlands Portugal South Africa and Great Britain on January 15 2021 came into force and thus represents the official birthday of SKAO.The SKAO Advisory Board is made up of government representatives from the member states and observer states who are seeking membership in the SKAO. These countries which were already involved in the design phase for the SKA include China Germany France India Canada Spain Sweden and Switzerland some of which are expected to join the SKA in the coming weeks and months as soon as the national preparatory processes have been completed. Japan and South Korea complete the shortlist of observer states on the SKA Advisory Board.At the first meeting of the SKAO Advisory Board strategies and procedures are put into effect that have been prepared in the past months and relate to aspects such as control financing programmatic and personnel matters. This is necessary in order to be able to transfer employees and systems from the previous SKA organization to the SKA observatory and thus enable the SKAO to operate.Work is proceeding rapidly with the planning of the construction of the observatory which will begin with the procurement of key elements and the awarding of contracts to industrial partners. This step represents a decisive decision by the SKAO advisory board that will be updated in the near future.SKAO will start recruiting in Australia and South Africa in the next few months and will monitor the development together with local partners CSIRO and SARAO. A period of eight years is planned for the construction of the observatory with the first observation possibilities early science as early as the mid-2020s.Prof. Michael Kramer President of the Astronomical Society and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy said on the occasion of the founding of the SKAOOn behalf of the Astronomical Society we convey our congratulations on the establishment of the Square Kilometer Array SKA Observatory and its start-up which will be marked by the first advisory board meeting. The vision for the SKA is to build and operate the largest telescope on earth in a worldwide collaboration of international partners. The German community has been involved in science and technology for the SKA from the start. We look forward to further participation in the scientific and technological challenges and new opportunities that the SKA will offer.
