SKA

THE SQUARE KILOMETRE ARRAY

COMPANY PROFILE

2013

SKA enters the era of cognitive systems

The international effort to build the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope in Southern Africa and Australia is well underway and the project is now gathering pace.

The SKA (Square Kilometre Array) project, one of the largest and most complex scientific projects ever undertaken, will see 3000 dish antennas and aperture array antennas spread across an area spanning 3000km, emanating from a core region in the Northern Cape, near Carnarvon.

The telescope will be able to see back in time, to an age before stars lit up the universe, to a time when there was only gas. The intense sensitivity of the telescope will be able to

pick up gas that existed before the first stars were even born.

The SKA will answer long standing questions from the areas of physics, astrophysics, cosmology and astrobiology. The telescope will explore previously unmapped parts of the distant universe and will be able to understand and investigate how stars and galaxies are formed and how they evolved over time; what the so-called ‘dark-matter’ and ‘dark energy’ is that occupies 95% of the universe; how magnetic fields formed and evolved in the universe and how they influence astrophysical processes; the validity of Einstein’s theory of relativity, and perhaps detect life elsewhere in the universe.

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SKA enters the era of cognitive systems Development of the world’s largest radio telescope is underway in the Northern Cape. SKA SA recently partnered with IBM and ASTRON to help develop new computing technology capable of handling the scientific data that the SKA will produce. We speak to Willem Esterhuyse, MeerKAT project manager to learn more about the progress of the project so far…

The project is managed by the SKA Organisation, a non-profit scientific company based at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Manchester, England.

The development of the SKA is split into two main phases with the first scheduled to begin in 2016 but so far, preliminary projects KAT-7 (a seven dish array) and MeerKAT (a 64 dish pre-cursor array) are complete and underway respectively.

In October 2012, we spoke to the SKA Organisation and SKA SA to find out about progress in the Northern Cape and this month we speak again to Willem Esterhuyse, MeerKAT project manager, to see if everything is on track and running according to plan.

“For KAT-7, everything is in place; maintenance, logistic support – everything required to run the instrument. KAT-7 was originally intended as an engineering prototype and technology demonstrator, doing only limited science as means to check the success of the dish design and materials, but has proved such a success that it has become a working scientific instrument. It’s running reliably and now we are focussed on construction of MeerKAT.

“In terms of infrastructure, a lot of work has been done. The road network is pretty much complete. The foundations are not complete but the pads where they will be constructed are there. Power and reticulation is done, the ducts for the fibre optics are done, the landing strip is nearly done and the site complex building work will be done by the end of July. By the end of the year all of the infrastructure for MeerKAT will be in place.”

ANTENNAClearly, for a project of this magnitude, intense plan-ning and preparation is required. The concept for the entire scheme began in 1996 and 17 years on, designs for the fundamental instruments – the antenna – are now being finalised.

“With regards to the antenna, we will have our preliminary design review between the 17th and 19th of April and then contractors will come on site in August with first antenna on the ground by the end of the year and handed over to us, qualified, tested and accepted, by 21.02.14,” says Mr Esterhuyse.

“However, this will just be the antenna positioner. We will then have to fit the receivers and digitizers for further testing supported by implementations of test correlators, control software and science processing software. By 21.04.14, the second antenna will be handed over to SKA SA that will be fitted as above after which testing of the two antenna array will commence.

“We should have five or six antenna installed by the end of 2014, 32 installed at the end of 2015 and 64 by the end of 2016. At the end of 2016 all the hardware will be fitted; receivers, correlators will be in place but only 32 will be science ready. By the end of 2017, all 64 will be fully commissioned and science ready.”

The deadlines are tight and there is a huge amount of work to do, but this has not deterred the people involved.


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Picture byDr Nadeem Oozeer

“In the grand scheme, MeerKAT seems like a small project but we need to remember MeerKAT will be the most sensitive instrument in the world so it is a substantial project”

Mr Esterhuyse explains that even though the schedule is challenging, development of the antenna has been done very thoroughly with significant attention to detail – it is safe to say that both SKA SA and the antenna contractor (Stratosat/GDSatcom) has a vision of making MeerKAT a world class instrument that will exceed the baseline requirement and be considered a benchmark for performance and reliability by the scientific community at large.

“It’s an aggressive time scale but currently we are on track and we are working hard to keep the project on track.

“The antennas will be delivered to a higher specification than we originally required. We thought we would get a sensitivity of 220m²/k, in actuality we will get sensitivity between 300 and 320m²/k. While this represents an increase in sensitivity of about 36% it means an increase in survey speed of about 86% and is well aligned with our vision of making this an absolute world class instrument.

“With the budget we have, we are really trying to build the best instruments possible.”

INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPSIn December, the SKA Organisation welcomed Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), to the group of nations involved in design of the telescope. Germany is the tenth member of the organisation and now has the right to appoint two representatives to the Board of Directors.

Germany joins the existing members of the SKA Organisation: Australia, Canada, China, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

India is an associate member.“Germany has an excellent track record not only

in radio astronomy but also in the management and delivery of science megaprojects and associated engineering. This expertise will be of great benefit to the SKA project as we move towards the construction phase of this inspirational telescope,” said Professor John Womersley, chair of the board of the SKA Organisation.

Mr Esterhuyse suggests that having multiple nations involved helps the project greatly, saying: “All the partner countries will have different expectations in the construction phases. It is very helpful, especially with big contracts like antenna structures, to have many countries involved. You can have pedestals built in one country, reflectors in another and systems integration from another so it is an effective way to split the work and involve industries from all the various countries.”

The SKA project is such a titanic effort that occasionally the pre-cursor projects can be overlooked and disregarded by the public but it is important to remember that the projects already underway form a fundamental part of the SKA and are in-themselves massive scientific missions.

“In the grand SKA scheme, MeerKAT might seem like a small project but one should remember that MeerKAT will be the most sensitive instrument in the world in L-band until SKA phase 1 is built, so it is a huge project in itself and will be a very capable science instrument.

“KAT-7 has already delivered, amongst others, images of the Centaurus A, a galaxy 14 million light years away,” says Mr Esterhuyse.

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ELECTROMAGNETIC SOFTWARE AND SYSTEMSTECHNOPARK, STELLENBOSCH

P.O. BOX 492, STELLENBOSCH 7599+27 (021) 880 1880WWW.EMSS.CO.ZA

REACHING FOR THE STARS EMSS Antennas is part of the EMSS group. Made up of three separate companies,

the group specialises in electromagnetic software and systems. EMSS Antennas is an industry leader in the development of custom antenna systems and related sub-components.

The group employs around 100 people in South Africa with 20 people working for EMSS Antennas. This year the group has reported a turnover of around R100 million and with the SKA project

gathering pace there are lots of opportunities for the antenna division to grow.“EMSS Antennas is ten years old this year and is at present devoting all resources to the South

African MeerKAT radio astronomy project. Our core capability is in electromagnetic theory and its applications, and over the last few years we have further refined our skill set towards the rather

unique needs of radio astronomy,” says Dr du Toit.

He is understandably very proud after the company was awarded a contract to design and develop the L-band cryogenically-cooled receiver systems for the MeerKAT. “We are very pleased with the outcome and look forward to the next phase where we carry it forward to the pre-production level. Most of the critical components have been prototyped and all measurable parameters were within

specification. All in all, 2012 was a good year!”

The company is made up predominantly of post-graduate engineers and the skill set is unique. Because of this EMSS Antennas have a great advantage when it comes to work with the SKA

project but Dr du Toit is keen to expand other parts of the business and work in different areas to ensure sustainability in the future. “Over the last few years we have honed and trimmed our

resources and capabilities to map very specifically to the generic radio astronomy receptor problem. It would be fortuitous for us to expand in a derivative line of business, which would allow a

seamless sharing of resources, and our challenge is to find this without putting our current main business at risk,” says Dr du Toit.

To make the business successful, it is not only a scientific mind that is needed. “What we add to the equation is a good work ethic, a can-do attitude and perhaps a healthy dose of self-imposed fear of failure,” says Dr du Toit. Add this to a capable team, an educated client and the correct funding, then

what you have is a company at the forefront of its industry.

The KAT-7 and MeerKAT projects will form part of the SKA and will prove invaluable in the testing phases.

“The pathfinders (MeerKAT and ASKAP) will be integrated with SKA. SKA Phase 1 dishes will consist of two components – firstly, SKA mid that will be 254 dishes in South Africa and secondly, SKA survey that will be 96 dishes in Australia. These will be integrated with the existing pathfinders so 64 of the dishes for SKA mid will be the MeerKAT dishes and 36 of SKA survey will be ASKAP dishes,” says Mr Esterhuyse.

The differences between the two locations will mean that minor design changes will be necessary to ensure reliability and functionality of the antenna, a problem well considered by the SKA Organisation when the decision was taken to award joint hosting of the project.

“We are trying to make all these dishes as identical as possible but there are slightly different requirements. The locations, base-lines, expansion factors and environments mean requirements will differ in the two countries,” says Mr Esterhuyse.

BIG DATAIn March it was announced that SKA SA had joined IBM and ASTRON (the Netherlands Institute for Radio Technology) in a four year collaboration to research extremely fast, but low-power exascale computer systems aimed at developing advanced technologies for handling the massive amount of data that will be produced by the SKA.

As part of an international effort to solve this extraordinary challenge, last year, ASTRON and IBM launched a public-private partnership called DOME, to develop a fundamental IT roadmap for the SKA. The collaboration includes a user platform where organizations from around the world can jointly investigate emerging technologies in high-performance, energy-efficient computing, nanophotonics, and data streaming. Through its SKA SA unit, the National Research Foundation (NRF) is now a user platform partner in DOME.

“Right now, we have to understand what is going to be proven technology in 2016. It has to be realistic; we can’t go for pie-in-the-sky technology and can’t design to current mainstream computing and storage technologies as it will be outdated before we’ve even started. The DOME collaboration will allow us to do

just that, track technology and understand where it’s going.

“The DOME collaboration brings together a dream team of scientists and engineers in an exciting partnership of public and private institutions. This project lays the foundation to help the scientific community solve other data challenges such as climate change, genetic information and personal medical data,” said Simon Ratcliffe, Technical Coordinator, DOME-South Africa.

KAT-7 has provided an interesting starting point for testing new technology and so far our most modern technology has been rigorously challenged.

“We worked with Intel on KAT-7 where they provided us with the latest state of the art technologies to test to the extreme and provide them with feedback in terms of the computing and storage capabilities of the equipment.

“From a computing point of view, they are considering 3D stacking of chips. Instead of having a normal motherboard with chips alongside each other, these will be stacked on top of each other. Since the physical distance between chips is reduced the performance is increased and the same number of chips can be fitted in a smaller space. Cooling does represent a challenge in such a configuration with the result that water cooling of the chips is being researched.

“Water-cooling is a more efficient method of cooling and overall, this system appears to be the next big step in computing,” says Mr Esterhuyse.

When the SKA is complete, it will collect ‘Big Data’ from deep space containing information dating back to the Big Bang more than 13 billion years ago. The aperture arrays and dishes of the SKA will produce ten times the global internet traffic according to the SKA Organisation, but the power to process all of this data as it is collected far exceeds the capabilities of the current state-of-the-art technology.

IBM has labelled investigations into this new computing technology the ‘era of cognitive systems’.

“The DOME research has implications far beyond astronomy. These scientific advances will help build the foundation for a new era of computing, providing technologies that learn and reason. Ultimately, these cognitive technologies will help to transform entire industries, including healthcare and finance,” said Dr Ton Engbersen, DOME project leader, IBM Research.

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“For example, we are designing a system for storing information that learns from its interactions with the data and parcels it out in real time to the storage medium that’s most appropriate for each bit, which can also be applied to medical images.”

Dr Albert-Jan Boonstra, DOME project leader for ASTRON said: “DOME is not only innovating in the laboratory, but our user platform is setting a new standard in open collaboration. In addition to SKA South Africa, four additional organizations

are expected to join in the coming weeks including universities and small and medium-sized businesses located in the Netherlands.”

A SOUTH AFRICAN PROJECTThe SKA is a global project but it will have massive impacts on South Africa, contributing to the economy by creating jobs and attracting investment.

SKA SA Project Director, Dr Bernie Fanaroff told The New Age/SABC breakfast briefing in March that the country, especially the youth, need to take advantage of opportunities created by the project.

“The SKA, if used properly, will create opportunities for us,” said Dr Fanaroff. He also stated that by 2020 South Africa is expected to be playing a leading role in the world of astronomy and once the SKA has been completed, South Africa will be in a position to understand the universe better.

Local content will be used in construction of infrastructure and antennas and the estimated R20 billion cost of building the SKA will be shared by partner countries.

As momentum builds and progress speeds up, excitement around the project continues to increase.

Dr Fanaroff said last year: “We have an outstanding site for the SKA, as well as the people and the expertise to build and operate this mega-instrument,”

Who knows, we could be only a few years away from discovering new forms of life and understanding exactly how the universe was born - all from equipment located in the Northern Cape..

Willem Esterhuyse

For more information about the project, take a look at our October 2012 issue or head to www.ska.ac.za

Picture byMaik Wolleben

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