Premier of the Northern Cape province
Your Excellencies
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It’s my pleasure to be with you today to mark an important milestone on the way to establishing the heart of the Square Kilometre Array here on the African continent about 100 kilometres from Carnarvon in the Northern Cape.
The Square Kilometre Array is one of the great scientific projects of the 21st century.
The Square Kilometre Array is a new generation radio telescope that will be 50 times more sensitive than any of the existing radio telescopes currently in operation in 25 countries around the world.
South Africa is one of two potential hosts chosen out of four bidders for the Square Kilometre Array. South Africa is going to be chosen to host for the Square Kilometre Array. And South Africa will be ready to host the Square Kilometre Array.
The Square Kilometre Array’s central location will be here outside Carnarvon, but there will be other parts of the array as far as 3 000 kilometres away in eight African countries.
The Square Kilometre Array’s antennas or dishes will sweep the skies to provide the data for answers to the major unanswered questions in astronomy.
It might reveal new details about dark energy, the mysterious negative pressure that appears to be pushing the cosmos apart at an ever increasing speed. Dark energy stretches the very fabric of space, a journalist writes in Science, and I quote:
“Cosmologists and astronomers know that only five percent of [the universe we live in] consists of ordinary matter of the sort found in stars and planets. Another 23 percent consists of mysterious dark matter that (so far) manifests itself only through its gravity. And a whopping 72 percent of the universe consists of bizarre, space-stretching dark energy which is speeding up the expansion of the universe. Scientists don’t know exactly what dark matter and dark energy are.”
Of course, South Africa is not undertaking the Square Kilometre Array project alone.
The project is so vast that it needs many countries to collaborate in the provision of skills and funding.
To date, 19 countries (and 55 scientific institutions) have joined the project and several more are likely to join, but it is currently expected that 80 percent of the cost will be carried by just nine countries. The United States (US) will provide 40 percent of the total cost, while eight European countries France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the UK will together bear another 40 percent.
The Square Kilometre Array headquarters will be at Jodrell Bank, outside Manchester in the United Kingdom (UK), where there is an observatory and a radio telescope that been listening to deep space for more than 50 years.
Starting to build the Square Kilometre Array is some years off. In the mean time we are preparing the way by building a demonstrator telescope, first the MeerKAT Precursor Array with seven dishes and then the MeerKAT with 80 dishes.
When completed, MeerKAT will be the most sensitive radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.
So we are on the way to hosting the Square Kilometre Array.
Moreover, astronomy in Africa is getting ready to host the Square Kilometre Array. Namibia, Kenya, Madagascar and Mozambique have introduced astronomy at universities. Nigeria is building a 25 metre radio telescope that will one day be able to connect to other radio telescopes in Africa to create a very powerful radio telescope network. Burkina Faso is installing a one-metre optical telescope. Ethiopia is considering erecting a two metre telescope. Egypt is refurbishing its existing 1.9 metre telescope.
There is excitement amongst the Square Kilometre Array, African, partner countries about building a network of radio telescopes. Namibia hosts a gamma-ray telescope called High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS). Mauritius constructed a radio telescope in the early 1990s. South Africa already hosts the largest optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere called Southern African Large Telescope (SALT).
Africa’s leaders have also pledged support for the Square Kilometre Array. On 10 March 2010 ministers responsible for science and technology in African partner countries re-affirmed their continuing commitment for South Africa’s bid to host the Square Kilometre Array.
The Southern African Development Community has declared their support for the African Square Kilometre Array bid. The African Ministers Council of Science and Technology has declared support for the Square Kilometre Array. At the 2010 African Union Heads of State Summit on Information and Communications Technology President Zuma pointed out that the Square Kilometre Array telescope bid will drive the development of information communication technology (ICT) in Africa.
Most importantly, the excitement and challenges of astronomy and space science are already attracting some of our best students into studying science and engineering.
The South African Square Kilometre Array’s human capital development programme has been recognised internationally as unique and highly successful.
Heads of astronomy departments and radio astronomy engineering facilities around the world have commented on the high quality of research being done by the postgraduate students and academic staff working with the MeerKAT team.
Professor Mike Jones of Oxford University said, “Your work is comparable with that of top students in other countries, and even with the work of professional astronomers.”
Professor Peter Wilkinson, a pioneer of the SKA project and Associate Director at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK, remarked that he was “amazingly impressed” by what South Africa has achieved with its SKA effort over the last few years.
Professor Steve Rawlings, Head of the Department of Astrophysics at Oxford remarked that he was “awfully impressed” by what he has seen. “South Africa is doing all the right things for the SKA!”
These are warm and encouraging remarks. South Africa is developing a formidable team of highly skilled radio astronomers and engineers.
In a further effort to expand the human capital development programme, in August last year (2009), I was pleased to announce the creation of five research chairs dedicated to research relating to the Square Kilometre Array and its exciting challenges as part of the South African Research Chairs Initiative.
The creation of these astronomy Research Chairs represents an investment of R240 million over fifteen years, and is a further effort to attract more of our young people, and young people from other countries in Africa, into science and engineering.
The research chairs will be allocated to South African universities through an open and competitive process and they will then be expected to find internationally recognised and dynamic researchers to take up these posts and to build world class research and teaching at the universities.
This in turn will strengthen our bid to host the Square Kilometre Array and demonstrates the South African government’s commitment and dedication to bringing one of the world’s most exciting science and technology projects to Africa.
Science, engineering and technology (SET) capacity is scarce throughout the world, and the South African Square Kilometre Array project team is definitely working in the right direction to address this shortage in the African continent.
That is why the South African government is committed to supporting exciting SET projects like the Square Kilometre Array and the Sumbandila Satellite to ensure the promotion of a stimulating and vibrant SET sector, one that will attract our brightest and best young people to study further.
If we succeed in bringing the SKA to Africa, it will be a major catalyst for development in Africa.
Antenna stations are to be located in eight African countries, both neighbouring and distant. The Square Kilometre Array will become one of the largest research and ICT facilities in the world, consolidating Africa as a major hub in world astronomy. The best scientists and engineers will want to work in Africa and the infrastructure will provide opportunities for scientists and engineers from African countries to work on cutting-edge research and to collaborate in joint projects with the best universities in the world.
For these reasons, the Square Kilometre Array represents an unprecedented opportunity for the development of very high level scientific and technological skills and expertise in Africa; skills which will be crucial in the next ten to twenty years in the global knowledge economy.
These technologies include very fast grid computing; very fast data transport; data storage; wireless engineering; digital electronics; image processing; and software development, amongst others.
In closing, hosting the Square Kilometre Array would make Africa a world centre of physics, astronomy and high tech engineering thus dramatically strengthening Africa’s capacity to innovate in harmony with its industries and universities.
Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
30 March 2010
Source: Department of Science and Technology (http://www.dst.gov.za)
