New Zealand, Australia joint plan to deep space telescope project

Australia and New Zealand have submitted their written proposal to host the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), claimed to be the most powerful radio telescope ever conceived. Their submission is the result of a major collaborative effort between 47 agencies across the two countries, said Australia and New Zealand SKA project director Brian Boyle Friday. "As ever, I am both amazed and unsurprised by the way in which so many Australian and New Zealand organizations have worked together seamlessly to deliver the response," he said. The final decision on the host site for the SKA is expected in early 2012, with the SKA expected to be operating in 2020. Australian Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr and New Zealand Economic Development Minister David Carter issued a joint statement saying hosting the SKA would put Australia and New Zealand at the forefront of international science. "The region has a long tradition of excellence and innovation in radio astronomy that goes right back to the birth of the field, " Carr said. The two countries were proud to submit a comprehensive and compelling response to the request for information by the international SKA project. "We have a remote site based in Western Australia with exceptional radio quiet characteristics and superb astronomy infrastructure. And, thanks to the National Broadband Network, Australia is rolling out the necessary fibre-optic links to allow SKA signals to be processed and transmitted," said Carr. "This is a huge collaborative undertaking, involving a number of nations and an array of cutting-edge technologies. It is important that the project continues to meet the agreed timeliness for completion." Carter said both countries would benefit from innovation and science spinoffs. "The SKA has great potential for innovative and high-tech companies and can inspire a new generation of scientists like the renowned Ernest Rutherford," he said. In July, the bid took a major leap forward with the operation of an optical fiber link between radio telescopes in the two countries. The link connected Auckland-based AUT University's telescope and radio telescopes across Australia, including the Australian Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope run by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency, in Western Australia. The ability to link antennas (satellite dishes) over large distances is vital for the SKA telescope, which would have thousands of antennas, up to 5,500 kilometers apart, working together as a single telescope. The project, costing 2.5 billion NZ dollars (2.06 billion U.S. dollars) allows astronomers to see distant galaxies in more detail. The SKA telescope will reportedly be 10,000 times more powerful than any existing telescope and will help the search for Earth- like planets, alien life, dark matter and black holes. It is claimed it would be able to generate more data per day than the entire Internet when it comes online in 2020. The SKA project is an international partnership of 67 organizations in 20 countries. In April, nine national governmental and research organizations established a founding board and Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK signed a letter of intent, declaring their common ambition to see the SKA built, and agreed to work together to secure funding for the next phase of the SKA project. The Australia-New Zealand bid to host the SKA project is competing with a bid from South Africa. If located in South Africa, the SKA antennas would extend to the Indian Ocean islands. A decision on the location of the SKA site will be made in 2012 after a site selection group has evaluated each candidate site.