Construction Update
Sunrise over the fly camp. Credit: Ventia
SKA-Low construction highlights BY ANT SCHINCKEL, SKA-LOW SITE CONSTRUCTION DIRECTOR
From groundworks and preparation for the first antenna installations, to establishing a paramedic service for on-site staff, it’s all go at the SKA-Low site.
First infrastructure works begin September saw the first SKA-Low telescope-related infrastructure take place at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. This included the first earthworks for the antenna arrays that comprise AA0.5 – the first six stations of the telescope, on the southern spiral arm. The first clearing works were performed by Wajarri Holdings, a Wajarri-owned and operated business subcontracted by Ventia, which marked the occasion with a celebratory on-site event supported by the SKAO. Guests included representatives from the SKAO, Ventia, CSIRO, Wajarri Holdings, Wajarri Yamaji Aboriginal Corporation (WYAC), Wajarri Enterprises Limited, Aurecon and on-site subcontractors. Four Wajarri companies have now been subcontracted for on-site infrastructure work for the project. More than 30 Wajarri people have been employed on the project on site, including infrastructure and civil works, camp village and transport, with additional Wajarri people employed through WYAC and CSIRO as heritage monitors. A 103-bed temporary “fly camp” was also opened, providing accommodation for staff, contractors and visitors while construction of the permanent 200-bed construction camp progresses. There has been a lot of progress on site since the celebration. Significant clearing, trenching and backfilling work has 8
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been done at the AA0.5 telescope stations, and power and fibre optic cables have begun to be laid. The pouring of the foundations for the remote processing facilities for AA0.5 has commenced. The on-site connections to existing fibre optic cables that link to supercomputers located more than 600 km away at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre in Perth will be installed in the coming months. As of early November, around 80% of the core area has been cleared in preparation for infrastructure works.
AAVS3 commissioning underway The team completed installation of Aperture Array Verification System 3 (AAVS3), the final SKA-Low technology demonstrator on site. AAVS3 is the first instrument owned, operated and maintained by SKAO staff in Australia. Representing a single complete SKA-Low station, AAVS3 is being used to trial an alternative layout, with a goal of confirming the layout with the least possible electrical interference between antennas. It is also an opportunity to test the building processes of the first SKA-Low stations, as well as the first building blocks for the verification of the telescope. With power and fibre cables connected, testing and commissioning has been taking place in collaboration with partners at Curtin University. The SKAO team in Australia recently captured the “first light” from AAVS3, meaning the first image of the sky taken by a telescope after construction. The scientists produced
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