ASKAP Construction on Track

1 February 2010

Construction of CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope has begun in Western Australia.

The first of 36 identical 12-metre antennas that will make up the ASKAP telescope is currently being assembled and will shortly undergo rigorous testing at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the Mid West region of Western Australia.

With the antenna reaching 18 metres in height (about the size of a four-storey building), a large crane has been used to lift the antenna’s pedestal, reflector dish and feed support into place.

In coming weeks comprehensive site acceptance testing of the antenna will be completed. Additional CSIRO-made components, including feeds, receivers and data processing systems, will also be installed on the antenna’s structure.

"We’re very excited to see the first ASKAP antenna being assembled at its new home, the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. This is a notable milestone in our project," said CSIRO ASKAP Project Director, Dr David DeBoer.

The antenna has been designed and built by the 54th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (known as CETC54). CSIRO awarded the contract for the design and construction of ASKAP’s 36 antennas to CETC54 in November 2008 after an international tendering process. Local contractors also assisted the team.

Staff from CSIRO’s Division of Astronomy and Space Science visited China at the end of September 2009 and completed factory acceptance testing of the antenna, which was then transported to Western Australia.

"The CSIRO and CETC54 construction team have made tremendous progress on building the first of ASKAP’s antennas, especially in very hot summer conditions," said Dr DeBoer.

Dr DeBoer continued, "The ASKAP antenna is an extremely innovative design, having three moving axes (altitude, azimuth and polarisation) where the entire dish rotates in unison with the sky. This feature enables very sensitive images of the sky to be observed. It also means that the radio signals arriving at the antenna’s phased array receiver or “radio camera” are fixed with it, making the processing of the signals much simpler than with conventional designs."

Construction of ASKAP’s next five antennas will proceed quickly. The first six antennas are due to be operational by 2011 and the complete ASKAP system is expected to be completed by 2013.

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