Oh my stars! SKA cost cuts alarm astronomers

The computing power of the Square Kilometre Array’s first phase is being scaled back to save money.

Astronomers are also concerned that components of the world’s largest radio telescope — to be built in South Africa and Australia — will be crowded into a smaller space as a cost-saving measure.

Dutch astronomer Heino Falcke told Nature.com this may reduce the SKA’s ability to detect faint signals from a few hundred million years after the Big Bang‚ when the universe’s first stars and galaxies formed.

The cuts were agreed at a meeting last week in the Netherlands‚ held to discuss the SKA board’s call for savings of 20% so the first phase can be built within a R10-billion cap imposed by the project’s 10 funders — South Africa‚ Australia‚ Canada‚ China‚ India‚ Italy‚ New Zealand‚ Sweden‚ the Netherlands and the UK.

Already slimmed down from a larger design proposed in 2013‚ it now comprises 194 dishes in South Africa and around 130‚000 antennas in Australia‚ which will now be a maximum of 40km apart rather than 65km.

Said Nature: “Astronomers were consulted about the changes at a meeting in Manchester‚ UK‚ in June. But since then‚ they have grown more concerned about the idea of crowding the Australian stations closer together. So the board’s decision may not be final.”

University of the Western Cape astronomer Roy Maartens said additional funding within the next two years could allow the design change to be reversed. But once construction started‚ it would be difficult.

SKA working groups were running simulations to assess the impact of the change‚ Philip Diamond — director-general of the SKA Organisation at the Jodrell Bank Observatory near Manchester — told Nature.

Moving clusters of antenna 50km apart was “at the top of our list of things to restore once more funding becomes available”‚ he said.

Astronomers were less worried about the decrease in computing power‚ said Falcke‚ because by the time teething troubles were ironed out it would be time to upgrade to a new generation of computers.

Construction of SKA’s first phase is due to begin in mid-2019. Diamond told Nature a treaty to create an intergovernmental organisation to run it should be ready this year‚ and all member countries would have to ratify it before construction began.

The SKA‚ 50 times more sensitive than current telescopes‚ will cost billions of dollars. Its final design has 2‚000 radio dishes in Africa and up to a million antennae in Australia‚ with a total light-collecting area of roughly a square kilometre.