SKA South Africa Overview
Thomas Kusel
MeerKAT System Engineering Manager
April 2011
Overview
1. Square Kilometer Array (SKA)
2. South African SKA Project
– MeerKAT System Overview
– Reliability approach
International Square Kilometer
Array (SKA) project
Next generation astronomy instruments
Optical
Radio (high Freq)
X-ray
Radio (low freq)
Infra-red
Next generation astronomy instruments
Sensitivity
Key science:
• Dark energy, Dark matter
• Origin of magnetism
• Cradle of life
• Evolution of galaxies
• The dark ages
• Tests of gravity
SKA vital statistics
• Site:
– Final candidate sites: South Africa & Australia
• Global: 55 institutes, 19 countries
• Budget: ~ € 1.5 Billion (for phases 1 & 2)
• Timescale:
– Site decision  2012
– Phase 1 (10% scale)  2018
– Phase 2 (full scale, low & mid frequencies)  2022
• Physical:
–
–
–
–
Up to 1500 dishes (15m) within 5km radius core
Plus 1500 dishes spread to 3000km radius
Plus aperture array and sparse array
Connected to a massive data processor
SKA artists impression
• What makes this instrument unique?
– Large collecting area (total “square kilometer”)
• High sensitivity allows detection in the very early universe
– Wide field of view (small dishes)
• Fast survey speed
– Large physical extent (3000km)
• Very high resolution
– Wide frequency range
• (70-300MHz : 300MHz-10GHz : 10-25GHz)
• Allows wide range of science
SKA Offset
DishesDishes
dense arrays
SKA Dense
Aperture Arrays
sparse Aperture
arrays
SKA Dense
Sparse
ApertureArrays
Array
SKA South Africa
Square
Kilometre
Array inreserve
Africa
Radio
Reserve
Site
bid:Astronomy
Radio
Astronomy
SKA SA project overview
Win the bid to
host SKA in
South Africa
- Stakeholder interaction
- Site selection
- Legislation
Build a world class
radio telescope:
− Must be world class,
irrespective of SKA
− SKA pathfinder: aligned with
SKA technologies
− Next generation
technologies
Develop skills and
expertise in
science &
engineering
Radio Astronomy
Reserve
MeerKAT
development
2004
2005
2006
MeerKAT planning,
team recruited,
prototypes and R&D
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2016
Radio Astronomy
Reserve
MeerKAT
development
2004
2005
2006
MeerKAT planning,
team recruited,
prototypes and R&D
2007
XDM
(1 dish)
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2016
Radio Astronomy
Reserve
MeerKAT
development
2004
2005
2006
MeerKAT planning,
team recruited,
prototypes and R&D
2007
2008
2009
2010
XDM
KAT-7 array
(1 dish)
(7 dishes)
2011
2012
2016
Radio Astronomy
Reserve
MeerKAT
development
2004
2005
2006
MeerKAT planning,
team recruited,
prototypes and R&D
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2016
2012
XDM
KAT-7 array
MeerKAT
(1 dish)
(7 dishes)
(64 dishes)
MeerKAT will be a world-class radio telescope in its own right
(Largest radio telescope in the southern hemisphere)
Radio Astronomy
Reserve
MeerKAT
development
2004
2005
2006
MeerKAT planning,
team recruited,
prototypes and R&D
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2016
2012
XDM
KAT-7 array
MeerKAT
SKA Phase 1
(1 dish)
(7 dishes)
(64 dishes)
(250 dishes)
MeerKAT - progress to date
Radio Astronomy
MeerKAT
progressReserve
Starting point:
- Remote location
- No infrastructure
Radio Astronomy
MeerKAT
progress:Reserve
Infrastructure
Power lines
Roads
RFI shielded processor facilities
Optical fibre network
On-site manufacturing facilities
Support facilities and accomodation
Radio Astronomy
MeerKAT
progress:Reserve
infrastructure
Infrastructure:
-Power
-Roads
-Manufacturing facilities
-High speed data links
-Accommodation
-Maintenance facilities
-Vehicles
-Etc.
Radio Astronomy
MeerKAT
progress:Reserve
Telescope
Composite dishes
RF Electronics
High performance
computing
Antenna control
Array processing facilities
Mechanical structures
Processing Algorithms
Cryogenic receivers
Radio Astronomy
MeerKAT
progress:Reserve
telescope
Telescope technologies:
- Mechanical structures
- Cryogenics
- Electromagnetics
- RF
- Optical fibre networks
- High speed digital electronics
- High performance computing
- Algorithmic
MeerKAT system reliability
Importance of reliability
• Remote location
–
–
–
–
Remote operations
7 hours drive to Cape Town
Only small towns close by
Maintenance staff on site is difficult (turno system)
• Minimise on-site acitivities
– RF interference risk
• Large number of antennas (64 for MeerKAT; 250 for SKA Phase 1)
– Drives maintenance cost
• High system availability requirement
– 85% of time available for science at full performance
– 24 / 7 operations
System Engineering approach to reliability
System Engineering philosophy:
Requirements
definition
Architecture design
Detail Design &
qualification
Design
Qualify
Production
Operation
Reliability:
Specify
Setting reliability
targets for the
system
(This is the easy
part)
Designing for reliability
Reliability allocation;
Architecture decisions;
Technology choices.
FMECA on designed
system
Qualifying the design
for reliability
Testing qualification
models to verify that
the design meets the
reliability targets.
Accelerated life time
testing on mechanical
systems.
Refinement of
reliability allocation
and FMECA based on
test results.
(This is difficult and
expenesive)
Measure
Production
quality control
Measuring operational
reliability – Integrated
Logistic Support
database.
Refine reliability
models.
Modifications to
improve reliability