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BuaNews (Tshwane)

South Africa: Telescope Project to Benefit Disadvantaged Communities

Nthambeleni Gabara

24 April 2008

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Pretoria — A telescope project, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), has awarded 69 bursaries and seven post fellowships to students from various disadvantaged communities in Africa.

The SKA will be the biggest telescope in the world and it would enable South African scientists to do breakthrough science.

Science and engineering experts briefed the media on Africa's bid to host the world's biggest radio telescope.

Speaking at a media briefing on Wednesday in Pretoria, SKA Project Director, Dr Bernie Fanaroff said since the launch of the project in 2005 many students from African countries have benefited.

"A total of 69 bursaries and seven post fellowships have been awarded to twenty men and 56 women from various African countries," he said.

He said the project also aimed to create jobs and attract young South Africans to pursue a career in the science and engineering fields.

"The SKA will attract leading astronomers and engineers to come and work in South Africa (SA). As astronomy is very exciting, it is our view that it will also attract young people into science as we urgently need in our country," he said.

According to Dr Fanaroff, 26 more bursaries have been awarded to African students from the continent, but who are in the fields of engineering and other science related disciplines.

The media briefing follows a two-day conference of African science experts to develop the continent's strategic approach to building the SKA.

The outcomes of the African experts meeting include:

•  All African partner countries to establish bilateral agreements and implement radio astronomy and science programmes in their respective countries;

•  Agreement includes possible remote stations in partner countries; human capital development and technology transfer programmes;

•  Partner countries fully support the implementation of protected areas around SKA stations;

•  Working groups and bilateral agreements to ensure good understanding and co-operation and

•  Future activities in partner countries.

Presently, South Africa and Australia are the only two countries short listed to host the SKA, which will be the largest radio telescope in the world and it will be located in the Northern Cape.

According to Dr Fanaroff, the SKA will also be one of the biggest Information Communication and Technology (ICT) ever constructed in the world.

"Our young people will gain skills and expertise in cutting-edge technologies which would be crucial in the coming twenty years," he said.

The project director said southern Africa was fast becoming a hub of activities in the field of astronomy and related technologies.

He said winning the SKA bid would be a major step forward for the government's Astronomy Geographical Advantage Programme (AGAP).

"It is our view that the SKA will boost the development of high level skills and cutting edge technology infrastructure as well as attracting collaborative projects in Africa," he said.

Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique and Namibia are South Africa's partners in the bid whose outcome will be announced in 2011.

The SKA is a $1 billion international project to create a receiving surface of a million square metres, one hundred times larger than the biggest receiving surface in existence presently.

Science and Technology General Manager of Radio Astronomy Advances, Dr Tshepo Seekoe described the SKA as an investment to transform the country into a knowledge-based economy.

He said it was also a conscious effort by the department to move towards economic knowledge that would drastically contribute to the national economic development of the country.

"As the department, we view the SKA as part of the broad knowledge of the economy and a quest to bring cutting-edge science to Africa," he said.

Dr Seekoe said that while the mega project required many nations to pool their expertise and resources, the telescope should be constructed in a suitable location.

As part of human capital development, funding has been secured from Universal Services Agency of South Africa to establish cyberlab in Carnarvon (Northern Cape).

It is hoped that the telescope will be completed in 2020.

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