First SKA-Low Prototype Station Completed On Site

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A complete prototype station of antennas for the future SKA-low telescope has been completed and is being tested at the SKA site in Western Australia.

In an important engineering milestone, a full station of 256 low-frequency antennas has been deployed and is undergoing tests at CSIRO's Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in outback Western Australia. The demonstrator, known as the Aperture Array Verification System (AAVS1) is being used to help test and finalise the design of the low frequency antennas for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), known as SKA-low. It was installed by an international team from Australia, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom over many months, sometimes in harsh conditions.

The work on AAVS1 is part of a global effort by 12 international engineering consortia representing 500 engineers and scientists in 20 countries. Nine of the consortia focus on a component of the telescope, each critical to the overall success of the project, while three others focus on developing advanced instrumentation for the telescope. After four years of intense design work, the nine consortia are having their Critical Design Review or CDR in 2018. In this final stage, the proposed design must meet the project's tough engineering requirements to be approved, so that a construction proposal for the telescope can be developed.