• ASKAP Overview
• News and Updates
• Parkes Testbed Facility
• ASKAP Science:
• Overview
• Array Configuration
• ASKAP Users and EoIs
• ASKAP Site - MRO
• ASKAP Technology:
• Overview
• Technical Update
• Antennas
• Receivers
• Smart Feeds
• Digital Systems
• Data Transport
• Computing
• ASKAP Memo Series
• MWA Homepage
• SKA Partners
• Industry and the Australian SKA
• Australian SKA Home

ASKAP Overview

What is the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP)?

ASKAP will be a next-generation radio telescope incorporating novel receiver technologies and leading-edge ICT systems.  ASKAP will be a world-class telescope in its own right as well as being a pathfinder instrument for the full Square Kilometre Array (see below). It will comprise an array of 36 antennas each 12m in diameter, capable of high dynamic range imaging and using wide-field-of-view phased array feeds.

Who is involved in ASKAP?

ASKAP is led by CSIRO ATNF in collaboration with scientists and engineers in Canada, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany, as well as colleagues from Australian universities and industry partners. 

ASKAP will introduce a fourth telescope to CSIRO's suite of radio astronomy national facilities. ATNF has already begun restructuring its operations to meet the expanding maintenance and configuration workload, and will eventually centralise control of all four observatories into a single operations centre.

Why build ASKAP?

ASKAP will be a telescope that can capture radio images with unprecedented sensitivity over large areas of sky. With a large instantaneous field-of-view ASKAP will be able to survey the whole sky vastly faster than is possible with existing radio telescopes.  In one week ASKAP will generate more information than is currently contained on the whole World Wide Web; in one month it will generate more information than is contained in the world's academic libraries.  This combination of survey speed and sensitivity will allow astronomers to answer some fundamental questions about the creation and early evolution of our Universe, and to test theories of cosmic magnetism and predictions from Einstein's theory of relativity.

ASKAP is a next generation radio telescope on the strategic pathway towards the staged development of the SKA. ASKAP has four goals, namely:

• To carry out world-class, groundbreaking observations directly relevant to the SKA Key Science Projects
• To demonstrate and prototype the technologies for the mid-frequency SKA, including field-of-view enhancement by focal-plane phased arrays on new-technology 12-metre class parabolic reflectors
• To establish a site for radio astronomy in Western Australia where observations can be carried out free from the harmful effects of radio interference.
• To establish a user community for SKA.

Where will ASKAP be located?

The main cluster (or array) of ASKAP antennas will be built in a remote outback region of Western Australia, with construction due to start in late 2009.  This region has been identified as ideal for a new radio observatory.  The population is very small and hence there is a lack of man-made radio signals that would otherwise interfere with weak astronomical signals.  The remarkably radio-quiet site in Western Australia is in the proccess of being developed as the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) and is the Australian SKA candidate core site.

ASKAP timeline

The ASKAP project is transitioning from a phase of research and development, with the prototype phased array feed (also known as the focal plane array) currently being tested and refined on the 12m testbed antenna at Parkes.

ASKAP will then move towards a "beta" phase - the Boolardy Engineering Test Array (BETA) will consist of six antennas operating at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) by 2011.

CSIRO plans that the full ASKAP system, comprising an estimated 36 antennas onsite at the MRO, will be fully operational by 2013.

ASKAP and the International SKA project

The SKA is under development by a consortium of  19 countries and will be an international mega-science project.  Australia is one of two regions short-listed as the location of the SKA; Southern Africa is the other.  

In addition to carrying out cutting-edge science ASKAP will pioneer and test revolutionary new technologies in areas of electrical engineering, digital systems, computing and signal transport, and provide key results and techniques to the international SKA design and development effort.  ASKAP will trial green-energy power generation systems, as well as showcase the outstanding characteristics of the MRO site and the potential for the SKA to be located in Austalia.

ASKAP is the primary development project under "Team Australia's" SKA (AuSKA) strategy to influence the SKA project to establish the SKA in Australia and use the generated wide-field-of-view technology.

For more information on AuSKA and the SKA visit the www.ska.gov.au or www.skatelescope.org web pages, or contact gabby.russell@csiro.au

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