ASKAP Antenna and Infrastructure Roll-out Continues

Excavation of the ASKAP control building footings at the MRO. Credit: Barry Turner, CSIRO.
The cable trench from ASKAP Antenna 15 reaches Antenna 5. Credit: Barry Turner, CSIRO.

27 September 2011

Construction of CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia has been making rapid progress.

Nine of ASKAP’s 36 antennas had been constructed at the MRO by early September 2011, and parts for a further five antennas had been delivered to the site.

Construction of supporting infrastructure at the MRO is also well advanced:

  • Main access roads, antenna access tracks and an upgrade of the MRO airstrip are almost complete
  • Fibre optic and power transmission cabling is underway
  • Laying of the foundations for ASKAP’s control building and geo-cooling system has begun
  • Construction of ASKAP’s central control building, which will house the telescope’s complex digital systems such as the beamformers and correlator, is also well underway at the manufacturer’s factory in Adelaide, with deployment to the MRO scheduled to begin in October 2011.

Preparations for the deployment of the first full ASKAP antenna receiver system to the MRO are also nearing completion. The system is undergoing factory acceptance tests at CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science headquarters in Marsfield, NSW and is scheduled for deployment to the MRO in October 2011.

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