Outline for SR0354527 - Frontier technologies prototypes and strategic positioning for the international radio telescope, the SKA.

• Background

  The SKA will be a complex system of array elements spread over a continent and operating as one telescope with a huge collecting area to give astronomers an unprecedented view of the distant universe. The aim of the Network is to bring together people from disparate fields to invent new technologies for building an advanced SKA prototype. Australians are playing a leading role in the international SKA Consortium and this Network will provide the missing structure to link the international representatives with local groups. The areas likely to produce breakthroughs include photonics and optical-microwave interfaces, digital signal processing and software radios, remote energy generation, fabrication of novel materials for construction, broadband antennas, inexpensive multi-component chip systems, radio interference mitigation, and petabyte data acquisition. These are crucial technologies for the SKA and will provide opportunities for Australian industry. There will be a high priority on skilling young engineers and scientists as the builders and users of the SKA, with its projected completion date of 2020. To afford the SKA we must foster and exploit technologies which can be mass-produced for the consumer market. Many of the resulting sophisticated components and processes will benefit Australian industry. The Network will be an interface between the international SKA Consortium, Australian SKA policy makers and science and engineering groups funded by the MNRF and ARC, linking in to industry and the new collaborations.
  

• Outline

  The Network will bring together international and Australian scientists and engineers from the SKA project and new collaborators. The focus of the Network is the design and construction of an advanced prototype, an Australian concept generated by international brainstorming. It is a multi-cylinder array and will use developments in signal processing and aperture plane arrays to produce a field of view far larger than SKA specifications. Science planners in the Network will attack the question of dark energy by measuring a million galaxy redshifts at z=1, explore star formation when galaxies first form and test general relativity through gravity waves from pulsars. The technology of fast signal processing and software radios is essential. To launch the Network, we will hold a workshop in January 2004. Follow-up meetings will define the new collaborations, and seminars will showcase relevant new research. International experts will participate in the workshop, followed by visits to work with Australian counterparts. The timetable for the SKA drives the need for this Network. Concept decisions will be 2007, funding proposals are scheduled for 2009 and construction is expected by 2020. The long timescale emphasises the priority for training young scientists and engineers. A program of three-month skilling visits will be established over the next six months. Two industry meetings will be held between November and February in Sydney and Melbourne to inform industry of the opportunities. The Network will coordinate Australian participation in the decision-making committees of the SKA project.