SKA Project by CMB Media Group

S K A P R OJ E CT

SKA PROJECT

Transformational Science Project

Continues to Benefit SA PRODUCTION: David Napier

Since our last look at the mega science project in South Africa’s Northern Cape, the SKA Project has advanced considerably. Now, the site near Carnarvon is home to the officially inaugurated MeerKAT instrument and will soon welcome full roll out of the SKA phase 1. It’s a very busy time for South Africa’s experts. Head of Communication and Stakeholder Relations, Lorenzo Raynard talks to Enterprise Africa about progress.

As the SKA project slowly develops, attention on the mega-project - centred in South Africa’s Karoo desert region - is brought into focus. Today, 25 years since the idea was first spawned, major progress has been realised. One the greatest scientific and technological achievements in history is now starting

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to take shape on South African soil. A quick recap, the SKA project (Square Kilometre Array) is an international collaboration to build a radio telescope tens of times more sensitive and hundreds of times faster at mapping the sky than today’s best radio astronomy facilities. It will be the world’s most powerful radio telescope and will

help to answer fundamental questions about the origins of the universe and the potential for intelligent life in distant galaxies. When complete, the telescope will be made up of a collection of various types of antennas, called an array, to be spread over long distances. To build such an instrument requires the brightest and foremost

INDUSTRY FOCUS: TECHNOLOGY

minds of engineering, science and computing in the world. The project has already demanded significant innovation and the development of cutting-edge technology, including the design of the world’s fastest supercomputers to process data at rates far greater than the current global internet traffic. Head of Communication and Stakeholder Relations for the SKA

project in South Africa is Lorenzo Raynard. He tells Enterprise Africa that international efforts are as advanced as human capability will allow. “The fact that we are drawing on an international community and drawing on the collective insight and mastery of engineering, science and systems engineering to build this means that we cannot do any better. We have German designs, Chinese construction, South

// THE FACT THAT WE ARE DRAWING ON AN INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY AND DRAWING ON THE COLLECTIVE INSIGHT AND MASTERY OF ENGINEERING, SCIENCE AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING TO BUILD THIS MEANS THAT WE CANNOT DO ANY BETTER //

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African site, experience from across the globe, strong political will to make it happen, and there is very little that could stop the project from being realised.” Milestones that have already been achieved include the inauguration of the KAT-7 array, a set of just seven 12m diameter dishes, in 2012. The 64 antenna MeetKAT telescope was inaugurated earlier this year and is now the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the southern hemisphere. PROUD AFRICAN PARTNERS In October, the nine African partner countries involved in the SKA project met at a summit in Cape Town to discuss progress. Ministers and senior officials from Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia came together, in a follow up to last year’s

SKA PROJECT

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meeting in Ghana, to prepare for the long road ahead. “Everybody was extremely impressed with the infrastructure onsite, by the powerful scientific capability of MeerKAT, and with the plans for the future of MeerKAT and SKA,” says Raynard. South Africa’s Minister of Science and Technology, Mmamoloko KubayiNgubane said that all partner countries agreed – progress has been impressive, especially when it comes to human capital development. “We have rolled out two-dish interferometers at universities for teaching and training purposes in Botswana and Mozambique as pilots. We have also rolled out about 10-20 computers loaded with software used in radio astronomy in Botswana and Mozambique as pilots.

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“We have been able to provide assistance to university astronomy programmes in partner countries through workshops and support to curriculum. “Lastly, we have initiated an AVN Human Capacity Development Programme, which has supplemented the SKA Human Capacity Development Programme to increase the number of recipients and training opportunities from the SKA/AVN partner countries. “So far, 136 recipients mainly from African SKA partner countries, have benefited from this initiative, many returning home to initiate radio astronomy programmes at their home universities,” she said. The meeting also gave the African partner countries the chance to discuss longer term plans for the entire SKA project and what needs to be done in each region to keep the task on track.

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“What we are doing with the African partner countries is ensuring there is a readiness and preparedness for SKA phase 2,” says Raynard. “In order to do that, we are collaborating with the African partner countries to build an African Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network (AVN). It’s similar to other interferometry networks across the globe. In order to create an African preparedness, we are meeting regularly, identifying sites for antennas, supporting progress with human capacity development, and making sure legislation - which we have pioneered in South Africa around the Astronomy Geographic Advantage Act – can be propagated across the entire African region.”

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Total commitment to integrity and excellence from South African engineering firm, Namaqua Engineering The biggest science project Africa has ever seen begins with the assembly of a tiny node of steel. Intricately bound together, it weighs about as much as a light dumbbell, and is the basis of the back-up structure to the most advanced dish antenna system the continent has ever seen. These backup structures form the building blocks of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a battalion of enormous dish antennas being installed near Carnarvon in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Amazingly, the team helping to build these monocles into the great unknown is part of a South African engineering firm, Namaqua Engineering, situated in the small town of Vredendal, some 430 kilometres from the Carnarvon SKA site. Every day, founder Stokkies van Zyl and his team arrive at work at 6 am to change the world. Van Zyl has a touch of Elon Musk about him. He’s a man of slight build but indomitable character who wears his nickname like a badge of pride. Stokkies means sticks in Afrikaans. But Van Zyl is made of iron. “We at Namaqua Engineering want to recognised and be the preferred supplier to all our customers by delivering unequalled engineering services through my highly qualified staff members with total commitment to integrity and excellence,” explained Van Zyl. Namaqua Engineering focuses on: Mining: Mining engineering is the discipline of applied science and technology in the extraction of minerals from the earth. Namaqua Engineering assesses the feasibility, safety and productivity of mine locations and plan, manage and optimise the extraction of surface and underground deposits. Their capable team are able to design, produce equipment transport or install conveyors, screens, crushers, feeders, sorters, pumps and general infrastructure. Wine industry: Namaqua Engineering is on top of it when they need to design, produce equipment, transport or install any stainless-steel tanks, presses, pistons, feeders, conveyors or infrastructure for the wine industry. Agriculture: Technology have been integrated with farming and has given agricultural engineering an advancement. The team at Namaqua Engineering design and build agricultural infrastructure such as constructions of sheds on farms and agriculture equipment. Agriculture engineers can also help to engineer and develop solutions for agricultural problems such as pollution control on farms. Piping: The Namaqua Engineering team pride themselves on their designs and drawings that conceptualize and create innovative plans for piping components and systems, that includes the plant layout development. Namaqua Engineering’s HDPE Piping department construct, supply and install HDPE piping ranging from 16mm to 500mm in diameter. The team utilise extrusion and butt-welding equipment to produce piping to any specification and design. Construction: Construction engineering relate to the planning, execution and control of construction operations for projects such as highways, buildings, dams, airports and utility lines. Namaqua Engineering ensures that work to be done is consistently planned and scheduled and select the most suitable construction methods and equipment for the specific project their team is working on. They will execute projects through timely mobilization of all drawings, layouts and materials on the job to prevent any delays. Namaqua Engineering is able to design and build any building or structure. Today Stokkies van Zyl and his team of 162 at Namaqua Engineering are ready for any challenge that comes their way. Please contact and follow us: Website: http://namaqua-eng.co.za Email: stokkies@namaqua-eng.co.za Instagram: @namaquaengineering Facebook: @namaquaengineering Twitter: @NamaquaE

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SKA PROJECT

Continued from page 25 With all running seemingly without hitch, Raynard reminds that much hard work continues to go into the project and the one big hurdle which is still a cause of headaches for all involved is finance. “Everybody is on board and happy right now,” he says. “The only hurdle we have faced is that the African Renaissance Fund has been withdrawn from the AVN project and that has left a funding deficit. However, this is not hindering individual African partner country participation in the overall project.” The African Renaissance Fund is administered by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation and was responsible for around R160 million investment in the AVN project. Fortunately, the Newton Fund, established as a human development project between the UK and South Africa, continues to bear fruit. “There has been funding which has been set aside as part of the Newton Fund which is called DARA – Development in Africa through Radio Astronomy – and we are now seeing a number of African students benefitting from that programme after being taught on the Kuntunse and HartRAO instruments in the areas of telescopy, interferometry, data science and astrophysics,” says Raynard. He adds that getting the project to the healthy position it now occupies has been no easy feat, and demand for continued success does not slow. “It has been hard work to meet these milestones. There has been political pressure placed upon us as it’s such a significant project – it’s one of the flagship science projects for South Africa – and the South African government has placed pressure on us

so that we adhere to the milestones and remain within budget. So far, we have done so - there have been a few rabbits pulled out of hats. After completing such a mammoth task there is obviously some exhaustion and relief, but very quickly we released that the work is only just starting and we now need to make sure the instrument is ready for long survey projects to start using the data. The scientists are keen to get their hands on the instrument and the data so that they can start processing. We have 11 large survey projects that are in queue to use the instrument and that takes up the next five years.” RFI QUIET Currently, one of the primary areas of focus for the experts on site is ensuring the region is not disturbed by RFI (Radio-Frequency Interference). Any RFI disturbance may degrade the performance of the instrument or even stop it from functioning. The level of sensitivity that will be achieved by SKA project instrumentation means every caution must be taken to ensure nothing interferes with the spectrum. Unfortunately, this is much easier said than done and has caused concern across South Africa’s domestic air industry which may be forced to reroute Jo’burg to Cape Town flights (one of the top 15 mist busy air routes in the world) to ensure no RFI. This will come at a cost to the industry with some reporting that the alternative route could cost airlines R2 million per year. “There are different types of RFI,” details Raynard. “One is a consistent RFI, like you get coming from an electric fence. This can cast the instrument blind and no observations can be made as the frequency is operating in the same range. Second is intermittent RFI, like what comes from a commercial aircraft

or satellite travelling across the site. This can be mitigated by software as it is a one-off interference, you can see it on the reading and assign it to a specific cause and remove it from the observation. Third is the RFI that would damage the instrument, such as opening a cell phone right next to the receivers. They are so sensitive that doing this would blow them. “For aviation, if the commercial flight is high enough, which most are, we can mitigate it. But if it flies too low or close to the instrument, there is a risk of damage. The Astronomy Geographic Act which has been passed in parliament in SA protects the entire Northern Cape, accept for the municipalities of Sol Plaatje, so that radio astronomy can be conducted. We can call on the legislature to enforce against any interference with observations.” He adds that engineers from the SKA project team have been developing alternative technologies that will help mitigate the RFI issues and benefit the region in more ways than just protecting the scientific instruments. “For example, when we started looking at cell phone connectivity in the area, we provided satellite phones and broadband trunk radio telecoms that operate outside of the designated bandwidth. “This has always been an under-resourced area in terms of communication because of its sparse population. Because of this, there has not really been any connectivity to support municipal or disaster management or emergency services. The alterative communication that we have started putting in place in the area means that emergency services are now much better equipped to communicate effectively.”

// IT HAS BEEN HARD WORK TO MEET THESE MILESTONES. THERE HAS BEEN POLITICAL PRESSURE PLACED UPON US AS IT’S SUCH A SIGNIFICANT PROJECT – IT’S ONE OF THE FLAGSHIP SCIENCE PROJECTS FOR SOUTH AFRICA // www.enterprise-africa.net / 9

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Specifically with aviation, the SKA team wants more information and is looking to monitor the airways before committing to a route recommendation. “We are looking at technology to record the amount of air traffic in the area. It’s a type of radar that doesn’t emit but only receives so not to interfere with the RFI of the instrument. It can track aircraft and give us data to understand the full extent of the impact on the aviation industry so that we can follow up with the next set of alternative technologies to help us build that relationship. “It would be senseless if you have a large science infrastructure investment of this nature which impedes on a huge economic stimulus such as air traffic between Johannesburg and Cape Town – it wouldn’t make sense for the country. However, we do now have this project which is causing an impact and so we are having a meeting with ATNS at an aviation summit to present information about the project and the RFI issues,” says Raynard. THE LAND ISSUE Since its initial inception in South Africa, the project has been met by mixed reactions. Everyone understands the

// WE ARE AT THE PHASE WHERE THE SECOND PROTOTYPE HAS BEEN BUILT, THE FIRST IN CHINA AND THE SECOND ON SITE, AND WE HAVE STARTED ENCOUNTERING CERTAIN CHALLENGES SO WE ARE SENDING THINGS BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD // 10 / www.enterprise-africa.net

benefit of having a globally recognised science project located in South Africa, but for those in the Northern Cape, where the project is having the most tangible impact, there remains concerns from locals. A 320,000 acre ‘quiet zone’ has to be in place around the instrument and this required the acquisition of 42 farms in the area. Residents thought that job losses could occur, and land could be mismanaged. But Raynard says the opposite will be true. To date, thousands of jobs have been created and $10 million has been spent with local suppliers and contractors. “In the beginning, it wasn’t largely accepted and welcomed,” he says. “Buying up the land has to be placed in context of the larger land issue in South Africa. There are many parties who are nervous about land restitution and when we went into that area we had to deal with a fear towards the process. We did not expropriate land, we bought all the land at market prices. One of the arguments was that we would be removing agricultural land from the region, having a huge economic impact. The second argument was that we would have an environmental impact on the area by buying the land and building large infrastructure for a telescope. The thought was that the land would be damaged and the impact would be irreversible. The third

concern was from neighbouring farms, who were concerned that if we did not manage our land properly, there could be a surge in breeding of predators that could damage their livestock. We also faced many other issues including emotive issues, where farmers had owned land for generations and had family cemeteries on site.” To overcome these concerns, many of which are still ongoing, a thorough strategic environmental management assessment was commissioned by the Department of Environmental Affairs. This covered not just the environmental impact but also the socio-economic impact in the region. Mitigations are now being developed to help build on the successful agricultural businesses in the region and to create new enterprises that contribute to employment numbers. “Economic impact is inevitable; you buy up land, there is an impact,” admits Raynard. “One of the interventions that we put in place to address that was to partner with the Williston Abattoir to set up a feedlot. Given the drought that we currently face, this allowed us to buy livestock from neighbouring farmers and bring the livestock to the level of slaughter so that it was not lost as it would be if it was left to normal grazing activity. It has been successful and has already allowed us to replace the economic impact we had in the area.

SKA PROJECT

“We are also looking at partnering with the Carnarvon Abattoir to consider how the waste product coming out of the slaughter of sheep can be used to build an enterprise development component for businesses in the community. “In line with the strategic environmental management plan, we have started the heritage walkthrough in partnership with the San Council and SANParks, to learn how we can establish a nature reserve that can run parallel to the hosting of the observatory. This would allow the land to be used for other research purposes. We are partnering with the South African Earth Observation Network (SAEON), who could use this space as a node for assessing long-term earth observations and look at variations and chance in areas such as the Karoo.”

These ideas are constantly evolving and are all designed to provide positive long-term impacts that provide economic development opportunities for the local area. “It’s a complex set of interventions to address a complex set of problems,” says Raynard. PROTOTYPES Currently, on site in the Karoo - centrally positioned between Carnavon to the south east, Vanwyksvlei to the north east, Brandvlei to the north west, and Williston in the south west – the 64dish MeerKAT instrument has already generated some of the clearest images of the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, 25,000 lightyears away from Earth. SKA phase 1 will see a further 133 antennas added to the existing array with the 64 MeerKAT dishes being

incorporated into the larger SKA project. Now is an exciting time for SKA phase 1 as the prototype for the next set of dishes is nearing completion. “Prototypes are the biggest part of an engineering project of this magnitude,” explains Raynard. “We are at the phase where the second prototype has been built, the first in China and the second on site, and we have started encountering certain challenges so we are sending things back to the drawing board. The benefit is that the prototypes are being built on an observatory so they have reference instruments to indicate the RFI and compliance to RFI requirements. From the perspective of creating parameters within which construction must happen, building on a current observatory is much more favourable for prototyping.” When design prototyping is

The sky is not the limit. Flexible, scalable and high-quality communication services that enable the growth of African economies. seacom.mu

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// WE WILL BE BUILDING THE SKILL TO NOT ONLY PARTICIPATE IN TELESCOPY AND INTERFEROMETRY, BUT ALSO IN DATA SCIENCE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGIES TO HANDLE LARGE VOLUMES OF DATA - THAT IS A MAJOR BENEFIT FOR SOUTH AFRICA // complete, production prototyping can begin before the final step - full-scale production. Current estimates suggest that full-scale production could start in 2021/22 but Raynard says that what is most important is getting the prototypes perfect before anyone talks about full-scale production. “When we hit full-scale production, we know we will be pretty much complete and that is exciting for the instrument,” he says. The MeerKAT dishes are 13.5meters in diameter, located on baselines of up to 8km. The dishes are of a highly-efficient design with up to four cryogenic receiver systems operating in different bands

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of the radio spectrum. The prototype for South Africa’s SKA phase 1 antenna is different - an offset Gregorian dual reflector. The main and sub reflectors were made of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRP), based on single piece panel and surface metallizing technology. The main reflector size is 18m × 15m, the sub reflector size is 5m × 4.7m. These specs will likely change as progress is made and when the scientists refine ideas of what is required while the final prototype is built on site in South Africa. For now, SKA phase 1 will take up the entire concentration of all involved in the project before any attention is given to

the longer-term venture of SKA phase 2. “SKA phase 1 is large enough for us to put all of our focus into it,” says Raynard. “When the IGO (Intergovernmental Organisation) is in place and we have more countries coming on board, bringing more money, SKA phase 2 will start to become more prominent and we will be able to put in place a much more realistic vision. What we know is that we understand the budgets for SKA phase 1 and everything is in place for us to complete that so there shouldn’t be any delays in phase 1.” Asked if bringing more countries into the fold will be a lengthy operation,

SKA PROJECT

Raynard explains he hopes the establishment of the IGO will make it much easier and more attractive for others to get involved. “Personally, I feel that the establishment of the IGO will make it more attractive for more countries to get involved as there will be a stronger international treaty in place.” SA: THE REAL BENEFICIARY Apart from the transformational science that will be conducted by a fully complete SKA instrument, and the knowledge it will deliver for all of humanity, the benefits to the local economy, and the wider-South African economy, are great. Foremost is the science and astronomy industry development, and skills development within these sectors. “We need the skills to drive the project forward,” highlights Raynard. “We are busy with the education programme

to make sure we are nurturing skills. We need to make sure that, at an international level, the SKA project can move along to a point where the IGO and the convention can be signed by each of the 12 partner countries. We also need to maintain our relationship with the local community by presenting to the municipalities and government so that they can see the benefit of having this project as their neighbour – that is an ongoing process.” For any country on the fence, considering if partnership in the SKA project is a worthwhile investment, Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois – a global leader in the physical processes that take place in the nucleus of our galaxy – sums up the success of the MeerKAT instrument so far: “MeerKAT now provides an unsurpassed view of this unique region of our galaxy. It’s an exceptional achievement, congratulations to our South African

colleagues. They’ve built an instrument that will be the envy of astronomers everywhere and will be in great demand for years to come.” Raynard says that the impact on South Africa is clear, and we are still only in the early stages of the project. “The benefit to South Africa to participating in a project like this is massive. We will be building the skill to not only participate in telescopy and interferometry, but also in data science and the development of technologies to handle large volumes of data - that is a major benefit for South Africa,” he concludes.

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