There is a pot of gold in deep outer space
August 9, 2009
By Kelvin Kemm
A contract for R46 million has just been awarded to a Brits-based company, Optic 1, for the construction of a 33kV power line, and a fibre-optic cable link, in the Karoo.
This is just not any ordinary power line and fibre-optic link: these elements are part of the MeerKAT project - a major radio telescope that will gaze out deep into the starry realms of space.
The radio telescope grew out of the earlier plan for a Karoo Array Telescope (KAT) but was expanded by adding more radio dishes to the original concept. The telescope is a cluster or "array" of very sensitive radio dishes that will focus on points of interest in deep space.
This set of radio dishes will operate together as a unit. The principle is that if a set of radio dishes are all connected into an array then they produce the effect of having one large telescope, and the larger the collecting area of the telescope the further it can "see", by detecting very faint radio signals.
The radio signals are so faint that any unwanted radio "noise" from power lines or any other radio source, such as radio masts, will interfere with the operation of the dishes. That is why the construction of the 33kV power line is such a hi-tech business. It must not "leak" radio noise to the dishes.
The fibre-optic connections between dishes, and also to the operations centre in Cape Town, have to operate to extremely high specifications, with a speed that really can be termed "lightning fast". The first seven dishes, each of 12-metre diameter, are now being constructed in the Karoo, not far from Carnarvon. The whole MeerKAT project will consist of about 80 dishes and is scheduled to be operational by December 2012.
MeerKAT is a major project but it is also a stepping stone to a much bigger prize, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The SKA is a planned telescope that will have an effective collecting area of 1km2 and will be the most powerful telescope on Earth.
The SKA will be able to see the beginning of time, by detecting very weak radio signals from deep space that were created at the time of the birth of the Universe, and which have been travelling through space ever since.
The price tag for the SKA is R15 billion! This is a major international project and, of the original group of countries that bid to host the project only two are left, South Africa and Australia.
Winning this project tender would mean not only that the R15bn would come into South Africa for the construction phase but so would the additional substantial running costs of the project, for many years to come.
There may or may not be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but there certainly is one in deep space.
Kelvin Kemm is a nuclear physicist and is chief executive of Stratek Business Strategy Consultants
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