1 Super telescope, super opportunities: British business and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
1
Super telescope, super opportunities: British business and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
Hosted by:
Jim Thompson
ICT Sector Specialist, UKTI Australia
Svetozar Kovacevic
UK Science and Innovation Network
Guest Presenter:
John Humphreys
Chair, Australasian SKA & Big Data
Industry Consortium
What is the
SKA?
World’s largest, most sensitive radio telescope
Thousands of linked dishes/antennas across
Australia, NZ and Southern Africa
Combined collecting area of 1 km2 (1 million m2)
Funded by consortium of 10 countries, est. cost over £1b
Square Kilometre Array
Two Continents, One Telescope
South Africa
Namibia
Botswana
Zambia
Mozambique
Kenya
Ghana
Madagascar
Mauritius
Australia
New Zealand
SKA1 (~10% scale, 2017-2022)
• 254 Dish Array (mid freq.) • 64 dishes (MeerKAT)
• 190 SKA
SKA2 (full scale, 2021-)
• 3000 Dish Array (mid freq.)
• Dense aperture array
Southern Africa
Dishes
MeerKAT
SKA Dish
Dense Aperture Array
http://www.ska.ac.za/download/our_journey_brochure.pdf
SKA1 (~10% scale, 2017-2022)
• 96 Dish Array (mid freq.) • 36 complete (ASKAP)
• 60 SKA
• 1000’s sparse aperture
array antennas (low freq.)
SKA2 (full scale, 2021-)
• Full (500,000?) sparse
aperture array
Australia
ASKAP
SKA Dish
Sparse Aperture Array
http://www.ska.gov.au/media/pubs/Documents/SKA%20in%20Australia%20Factsheet.pdf
Scale and Power
Over 900 Petabytes data collected by SKA in a
single day: 15 million 64 GB iPods
Over 80,000 km optical fibre required:
enough to wrap around the earth twice
Compared to global internet traffic, dishes will
produce 10× more, aperture arrays over 100× more
Supercomputer requirements: 1018 operations per
second, equivalent to the number of stars in 3m
Milky Way galaxies; processing power of 100m PCs
Project Timeline
Request for proposals
Proposal responses
Proposal evaluation
Cost ceiling established
Design consortia start
Preliminary design review
Prototype systems deployed
Critical design review
Seek SKA1 funding
Develop SKAO governance
SKA1 construction approved
Tender & procure construction
SKA1 construction
Detailed design of SKA2
SKA1 early science
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Australia:
SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP)
Phased Array Feed
technology
developed by CSIRO
Key UK Government Stakeholders
What is the
ASKAIC?
Australasian SKA & Big Data
Industry Consortium
£11.4m
£0.85m
Representative only + other companies
ASKAIC’s Goals
• Continue to support ANZ Governments in the
Pre-Construction Phase of the SKA
• Maximise the non-astronomy industry opportunities from SKA,
including Big Data, Energy Efficiency etc.
• Foster regional research/industry connections through SKA and
broader industry engagements
• Provide an industry-led catalyst for informing national strategy
regarding Big Data
• Develop SKA industry consortia activity; focus on UK/ANZ as
exemplar for future industry consortia-building by stakeholder nations
Opportunities for
UK Industry
Work Packages for Industry
Dishes
Low Frequency
Aperture Array
Signal and
Data Transport
Central
Signal
Processor
Science Data
Processor
Telescope
Manager
Synchronisation
and Timing
Power
Site and
Infrastructure
Mid Frequency
Aperture Array
Phased Array
Feeds
Wide Band
Single Pixel
Feeds
Work Packages for Industry: UK Lead
Work Package Lead Consortia Members
Science Data
Processor
Software and
computing
University of
Cambridge
University of Cambridge
CSIRO Astronomy & Space Science
ASTRON Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
SKA South Africa
ICRAR
SDP-NZ
STFC
University of Manchester
MPIfR Bonn
Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC
ICCS, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
University of Melbourne
CADC/cyberSKA
University of Oxford
Work Packages for Industry: UK Lead
Work Package Lead Consortia Members
Signal and Data
Transport
The SKA
telecomms network
Synchronisation
and Timing
University of
Manchester
University of Manchester
CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science
Instituto de Telecomunicações
Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE)
ASTRON Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
SKA South Africa
University of Granada
Work Packages for Industry: Others
Work Package Lead Consortia Members
Dishes
Phased Array
Feeds
Wide Band
Single Pixel
Feeds
CSIRO CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science
Penticton, NRC, HIA, DRAO & University of Calgary
NAOC, JLRAT
ASTRON
SKA South Africa
INAF
Chalmers University & Onsala Observatory
University of Manchester
Discussions: EMSS, MMS, BAE Systems (South Africa)
CETC54/JLRAT (China)
Airborne Composites (ASTRON, NL)
Finmeccanica (INAF, Italy)
Université de Bordeaux 1, Observatoire de Paris (France)
Low Noise Factory, Omnisys Instruments AB (Sweden)
Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, GE (Australia)
Selex-Galileo (UK)
Work Packages for Industry: Others
Work Package Lead Consortia Members
Low Frequency
Aperture Array
Mid Frequency
Aperture Array
ASTRON ASTRON Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
ICRAR
INAF-IRA
JIVE
Observatoire de Paris
Raman Research Institute (RRI)
Université de Bordeaux 1 (UB1)
University of Cambridge
University of Malta
University of Manchester
University of Oxford
Work Packages for Industry: Others
Work Package Lead Consortia Members
Central Signal
Processor
NRC National Research Council of Canada (NRC)
Canadian SKA Industry Consortium (IBM Canada, others)
University of Alberta
University of Calgary
Work Package Lead Consortia Members
Telescope
Manager
NCRA-TIFR National Centre for Radio Astrophysics - Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR)
Which UK Companies are Interested in SKA?
RFMOD
UK Companies Active in the ANZ SKA
Building the UK-ANZ Relationship
• Long-standing collegiate relationship
between UK SKA Industry Consortium &
ASKAIC
• Informal collaborative discussions have
already commenced between UK-ANZ
• Three countries understand common issues
and opportunities
• Focus extending beyond SKA to Big Data &
other non-astronomy fields
SKA
Non-Astronomy Opportunities
Big Data: cloud computing, processing, transport, storage
Communications: sensor networks, NBN
Energy efficiency: renewables, reliability, heat control
Construction: remote location, infrastructure, maintenance
Manufacturing: material, design and systems engineering
Skill: training and expertise
Possible Next Steps
• Tripartite demonstration Big Data project
• eg. Dome project in the Netherlands
• UK Delegation to ANZ – 2013/2014
• Leverage off SKA relationships to build a stronger UK & ANZ
industry alliance
• Establish annual program of UK & ANZ industry
collaboration?
• Collective drive to enhance industry input to SKA
Organisation & Manchester HQ
Australia/NZ
John Humphreys Chair
Jim Thompson ICT Sector Lead
Svetozar Kovacevic Australian Representative
Prof. John Bancroft Head of Project Devt Asia Pacific
UK
Nigel Rix Director of Electronics
Louis Barson Science and Innovation Unit
Prof. Richard Schilizzi SKA Group
Simon Berry Programmes Directorate
How can UKTI help you?
• Provide grants to help you research the market
through our Export Market Research Scheme
(EMRS)
• Conduct market research & contact finding for
you through our Overseas Market Information
Service (OMIS)
• Help you attend Exhibitions through our
Tradeshow Access Programme (TAP)
• Help you successfully visit the market as part of a
Trade Mission through our Visit Scheme (MVS)
Next Steps
If you are interested in learning
more about opportunities here then
get in touch with your local UKTI
International Trade Adviser. You
can find your local ITA through our
website www.ukti.gov.uk or
contact
http://ukhpc.co.uk/conference