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SKA Technology Development |
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| The SKA will be an interferometric array with
maximum baseline of several hundred to a thousand kilometres. As currently
envisaged, each station of the array will be a radio telescope with aperture
up to 200 meters - a factor of two larger in diameter than the largest existing
fully steerable radio telescope. Wide field of view will be achieved,
despite large collecting area, by constructing stations with arrays of smaller
sub elements or by use of phased array, multi-beam receivers on large reflectors.
To realize a Square Kilometre Array at reasonable cost, a new means must be developed to construct very large apertures for radio telescopes at a small fraction of the cost of conventional technology. Research and development activities are underway at several international centres. Solutions under study include adaptive array technology, "smart" antennas, large arrays of low-cost parabolic antennas, and novel concepts for very large, single-aperture antennas. Plans are well developed for construction of different prototype telescopes within the next several years. Detailed descriptions of SKA technology concepts can be found on the SKA Memoranda page. A process for convergence on a technological concept(s) for the SKA has been agreed, leading to a technology decision around 2005.
The factor of 100 increase in sensitivity that will be achieved by the SKA will not only allow detection of faint signals from the early Universe, but also spurious emissions from terrestrial and near-Earth transmitters. Moreover, to access arbitrary red-shifted emission from spectral lines will require observations outside of the narrow radio bands that are protected for radio astronomy by international agreement. A research and development effort is underway by members of the international SKA project to develop technologies to mitigate the effects of radio frequency interference on astronomical signals. |
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