MFAA environmental prototypes realized!

© Photowise / Sarel van Standen

Last week, an ASTRON team realized the MFAA environmental prototypes on the SKA Karoo site! We enjoyed a very hot and dusty week, but were lucky enough to run into some typical Dutch (rain) weather afterwards.

Thanks to Sarel van Staden (Photowise), we got some tremendous pictures. Sarel was around at the site, as he also took some outstanding pictures of the first MeerKAT reflector being assembled and lifted into the final destination.

Additional information on the prototypes can be found on the previous daily images (17-06-2013 , 09-09-2013 and 10-03-2014, 17-03-2014 ). The images show the four environmental prototypes inside the WSRT bouwhal, the anchor test performed at the South Afrika Karoo SKA site, the shipment of the prototypes and the site where the prototypes will be realized.

These environmental prototypes are part of the Array Prototypes work package of the

SKA Mid-Frequency Aperture Array consortium

This project is part-financed by the Northern Netherlands (SNN), the European Regional Development Fund, and the "Peaks in the Delta" program of the Dutch Ministry of Economic affairs, Agriculture and Innovation.