The Square Kilometre Array, 1st ed. 2024 A Science Mega-Project in the Making, 1990-2012 Historical & Cultural Astronomy Series

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a grand vision project to build the most sensitive radio telescope in the world. This open access book tells the story of its development ? a story of transformational science, innovative engineering, and global collaboration. Its journey has been long and complex, reflecting the many issues faced in creating an affordable design, choosing a site, and developing a viable global organisation starting from a simple working group of far-sighted and persistent astronomers in 1993.

The book begins with the emergence of the SKA concept and the first working group. It traces the development of global scientific and engineering collaborations and ever more comprehensive governance structures for the SKA, the involvement and roles of funding agencies and governments, and the long, political site selection process. This occurred alongside efforts to overcome technical barriers and the difficult process of selecting technology. It follows these themes up to the point in 2012 when the project had just transitioned from a collaboration to a legal entity and the dual site decision was made ? a pivotal moment when it was clear the SKA arrays would be built.

The book is based on the authors? personal experience at the leading edge of the project over many years, as well as access to hitherto unpublished material from project archives, interviews, and presentations from many of the key players at a specially convened conference. It has a Foreword written by John Womersley, former Chair of the Agencies SKA Group and SKA Organisation Board. The book is intended for an audience ranging from funding agencies and governments involved in major research infrastructures, to historians of science and professional researchers studying mega-projects, to the astronomy and physics communities in general and interested lay readers.

Preface (to be written)

i.            why write a history of the SKA now

ii.            why build an SKA

iii.            scope of the book and period covered (to November 2012)

iv.            approach taken - historical timeline, focus on major themes

Chapter 1.  Introduction (to be written)

Topics to include

i.         Great Observatories for the coming decades

ii.       evolution of radio telescope sensitivity, angular resolution, scale of projects (Livingstone curves)

iii.     evolution of the funding environment for radio astronomy in the major SKA countries from 1990 to 2012 (or 2020?) in terms of relative funding for optical, radio and space astronomy 

iv.     SKA was “born global” at grass-roots level. Global organisation had to be built up in stages culminating eventually in a Treaty Organisation.

v.       The culture of radio astronomy as a science – sharing of ideas, staff exchange, blue skies research, open skies policy, VLBI. The rise in importance of intellectual property and its effect on the exchange of ideas.

vi.     national and regional motivations for joining the SKA eg science, training, education, technology,…

vii.    outline SKA concept and the SKA1 baseline design, and reference the many twists and turns of technology and site down-selects to be described in later chapters.

viii.  outline characteristics of mega-projects and measures of success, and reference the analysis of the SKA as a mega-project in the final chapter 

ix.      Introduce SKA History Conference as a source

Chapter 2. Large radio telescopes and the emergence of the SKA, 1957-1993 (draft written, Richard Schilizzi)

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Large collecting area telescopes >10,000 m², concepts and constructions

2.2.1  Single Dishes

The 1000-foot Arecibo Dish, Puerto Rico (operational 1963)

US concepts for very large steerable dishes, 1957-1971

2.2.2  Arrays of dishes

The Benelux Cross Project Proposal, 1958-1964, The Netherlands – Belgium

Project Cyclops Proposal, USA, 1971

VLA, New Mexico, USA (operational 1980)

The Radio Schmidt Telescope Proposal, Canada, 1986-1991

Giant Metre-wave Radio Telescope (GMRT), Pune, India (operational 1995)

2.2.3  Parabolic Cylinders

Concept array of parabolic cylinders, 1962

Molonglo Cross Radio Telescope, Australia (operational 1965)

Northern Cross Radio Telescope (operational 1967)

Puschino DKR-1000, Russia (operational 1964)

Ooty Radio Telescope, India (operational 1970)

Giant Equatorial Radio Telescope (GERT), Proposal, 1978 – 1983, India-Africa-Indonesia

2.2.4  Dipole arrays at low frequencies

Low frequency dipole arrays in the USSR

2.2.5 The first Square Kilometre Array: Grote Reber’s 2 MHz array in Tasmania, Australia

(operational 1963-7) 

2.3 Global collaboration in radio astronomy pre-SKA

2.4 The SKA – first ideas

2.4.1 Separate bubbles of activity

2.4.2 Lighting the SKA torch in October 1990 – IAU Colloquium 131 on Radio-Interferometry - Theory, Techniques and Applications

2.4.3     1990-1993, Interim Activities

2.5 SKA is born global, 1993

Chapter 3. Evolution of the SKA science case (Ron Ekers, to be written)

Possible topics to include

i)        initial motivation –  extragalactic neutral hydrogen (Swarup, Wilkinson, Braun)

ii)       (science with Radio Schmidt concept)

iii)     SKA science meetings

v)       Role of KSPs

vi)     Funding agencies (particularly the NSF) and “transformational science”

vii)   Funding Agency WG desire in 2008 for a strong science case for SKA Phase 1

viii)  Survey projects on ASKAP and MeerKAT

ix)     Survey vs PI projects. Trace how the relative importance of the two has evolved, “Big” vs “Small”. Did/do different science cultures have an impact on “big vs small”?

x)       Brief review of current of current (two-volume) science case for SKA Phase1, and the continuing case for the full SKA.

Chapter 4. Innovation meets reality – the SKA design (Peter Dewdney, to be written)

Possible topics to include

i)        Pre-1990 thoughts (Cylinders – Swarup/GERT and 1985 Wilkinson Note; Many small dishes – Dewdney 1989)

ii)       1991-3 concepts (many large dishes - Swarup ITRA 1991 paper; Wilkinson Hydrogen Array 1991 paper (Proc IAU C131); large dishes/other concepts - Noordam, Braun and de Bruyn, NFRA Note 585, 1991)

iii)     1993 onwards. Dishes (large and small), aperture arrays, phased array feeds, Luneberg lenses, cylinders

iv)     National engineering solutions and interaction with the funding politics/ innovation, knowledge transfer to industry, etc.

v)       International collaboration, 1996 MoU to Cooperate in a Technology Study Program Leading to a Future Very Large Radio Telescope

vi)     2000-2005 IEMT and ISPO Engineering WG reviews, science requirements matrices

vii)   Jan04 Convergence Workshop

ix)     2005 Funding agency meeting at Heathrow leading to technology down-select

x)       2005 Technology down-select/reference design, role of the Tiger Team

xi)     IEMT, SKADS, TDP, PrepSKA, …. as unifying technology programs

xii)    Central system engineering approach vs central design integration

xiii)  Conceptual design reviews in 2010 and 2011

xiv)  Tiger Teams, Memo 100, Memo 125

a.       Were the Tiger Teams effective?

xv)    2010 SKA1 Baseline Design

xvi)  Precursor/Pathfinder projects, impact on SKA design

xvii)            SKA Phase 2 requirements in the SKA Phase 1 detailed design

xix)  Impact of “discarded” SKA concepts on SKA itself. Eg wide field concepts ignited interest in multiple beams and independent fields and led to the inclusion of wide FoV in the SKA AIP.

xx)    Include a discussion of data flow impact on the design

xxi)  Forward planning, review dates, expected date of completion of the SKA vs reality

xxii)SKA cost estimates vs time via guesses/comparisons/models

Chapter 5. Global collaboration on science and technology: The SKA Journey from "Grass-roots" to the World´s Largest Radio Telescope      (Richard Schilizzi, Ron Ekers and Peter Dewdney, draft in progress)

Chapter to focus on four main themes:

i)                    the Grass-roots Phase (1993-2005) before the national and regional (European Commission) funding agencies became involved,

ii)                   the Transition Phase (2006-2011) when there were three governance entities  - the SKA Steering Committees comprising institute directors, the Funding Agencies, and an EC-appointed PrepSKA Board, and

iii)                 the Pre-Construction Phase (2011- present) that began after establishment of the SKA Organisation as a UK Company and the governance was solely vested in the company

3)      Issues arising in these different phases

4)      Points of reflection about decisions made and directions taken.

Chapter 6. Project politics and funding (Richard Schilizzi, Ron Ekers, Peter Dewdney, to be written)

Topics to include

i.          Motivation to join the project in each institute/country. Did this change as a function of time?

ii.       Funding model, country by country.

iii.     OECD Mega-science Forum Task Force on Radio Astronomy. OECD as ISPO banker, 2005-2007

iv.     SKA Phase 1 and Phase 2 separation as a means to accommodate the priority assigned to optical ELTs in Europe.

vi.     SKA in the European Roadmap via the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) 2006

vii.    Preparatory Phase (PrepSKA) grant from the European Commission (2007)

viii.  The effect of the 2010 Project Execution Plan on the Funding Agencies

ix.      The 2011 Business Plan

x.       Site selection politics

-          Africa and EU Development Funds

xii.    SKA becomes a legal entity in Dec 2011. Funding commitments by member countries.

Chapter 7. Site selection (draft written, Richard Schilizzi)

7.1 Early national site investigations (1994-2002)

              7.1.1 China (1994-2002)

7.1.2 Australia (1996-2002)

7.2 Site Short-listing (2002-2006)

7.2.1 Identification of potential SKA sites (2000-2004)

7.2.2 Initial characterisation of potential sites, 2002-2005

7.2.3 Timeline to site selection

7.2.4 Request for full proposals, 2004-5

7.2.5 Responses to the Request for Proposals

7.2.6 The Funding Agencies Intervention

7.2.7 Evaluation of the proposals

7.3 Site short-listing outcome

7.4 Final site selection (2006-2012)

7.4.1 When should the site decision take place?

7.4.2 Site selection process

7.4.3 Site characterisation

7.4.4 Site selection politics

7.4.5 Site Evaluation, Recommendation, and Final Site Decision

7.5 Was a win-win decision inevitable?

7.7 Central Office location [separate chapter?]

7.7.1 2007 (SPDO)

7.7.2 2011 (SKAO)

Chapter 8. Industry engagement (draft written, Phil Crosby)

8.1         Early industry interactions

8.3         The dream of COTS, and the departure from it (technical and industry engagement)

8.4         International SKA Project Office (ISPO) strategic initiatives 2004-2008

8.5         SPDO approach and priorities (power and site consultancies; first procurement papers); engagement of industry participation specialist

8.6         Broad industry engagement policies and principles; learning by analogy with other projects; building an industry network, developing the SKA Industry Engagement Policy

8.7         Evolution of project and national industry priorities and initiatives, and growth of enabling organizations (e.g. industry consortia)

8.8         Reaching out to industry; SKA Forum adjunct meetings; EoIs, Engineering meetings, COST workshops, Industry surveys, and the SoMI group

8.9         Effectiveness of approaches to industry

Chapter 9. The SKA as a mega-science project (Phil Crosby, Richard Schilizzi, Ron Ekers, Peter Dewdney, to be written; outline by Phil Crosby exists)

9.1   Mega-project characteristics and their idiosyncratic natures, and the SKA idiosyncrasies and constraints in particular

9.2   Analogies for SKA: HPC etc.

9.3   What lessons were/are available to the SKA?  Were they heeded?

9.5   Central vs distributed organization: tensions and interactions

9.6   SKA as a “big gulp”: did we bite off more than we can chew, given practitioner numbers and expectations for other regional facility development and operation?

9.7   Phil Crosby thesis and the project check tool – how does SKA do if the tool is applied?

9.8   SKA leadership – all levels

9.9 Closing thoughts

Richard Schilizzi – First International SKA Director, 2003-2011; at-large member of the International SKA Steering Committee, 1999-2002; Foundation Director of the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, 1993-2002. Current position: Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics, University of Manchester

Ronald Ekers – One of the founding fathers of the SKA, and first chair of the International SKA Steering Committee (ISSC), 1999-2002; member ISSC, 1999-2007; Foundation Director of the CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility, 1988-2003; first VLA Director, 1980-1988. Fellow of the Royal Society, the Australian Academy of Sciences, and the US National Academy of Science. Current position: CSIRO Fellow and Adjunct Professor at Curtin University in Australia.

Peter Dewdney – SKA Architect, 2012-present; SKA Project Engineer, 2008-2012; member of the International SKA Steering Committee, 1999-2007, one of the early proponents of the SKA.

Describes the first two decades of development of an unusual mega-(science) project

Gives an account of the vision driving the global collaboration and the historical development of the SKA

Provides a "blueprint" for the early stages of constructing a mega-science facility

The first book on the History of the SKA project