Countries haggle over huge SKA telescope costs

South African politicians were told last week that tricky and extended negotiations were under way to work out how much each country involved in the first-phase construction of the massive Square Kilometre Array, or SKA, radio telescope will have to fork out.

Bernie Fanaroff, SKA South Africa’s project director, told members of parliament's science and technology portfolio committee last Wednesday that the major current issue was how to fund phase one of the project, which is expected to cost €650 million – US$868 million and about R8.9 billion in local currency.

"There's been a long, long, long negotiation over how much each country's got to pay and how much it will get back, and how much is in cash and how much in kind," Fanaroff was quoted as saying by the South Africa Press Agency.

He said the negotiations on who paid how much would not be complete before 2014.

Fanaroff said SKA's board of directors last month put a restriction on the capital costs for phase one of the project. He said after a detailed study of phase one costs, the board had decided to cap the amount.

“We're now saying we must design the telescope to achieve the science within that cost. The capital cost, as capped by the board, is €650 million over the period 2017 to 2023.”

Fanaroff said there was a possibility of other contributions from other counties. “The [United States] will almost certainly come in after 2020. We hope the European Union will find some way of contributing as well.”

He hinted that the project's second and final phase would cost less than the first. "The cost of SKA phase two will only be clear when the design is done...but we expect it to be cheaper, because the technologies will be cheaper by that time.”

South Africa has already committed €16 million to the pre-construction phase of the SKA radio telescope. This is made up of €4 million in cash to the international SKA Organisation managing the project and €12 million worth of in-kind contributions to the pre-construction work packages.

Construction is intended to start in 2016, and the second phase should be built from 2019 to 2024.

The huge Square Kilometre Array radio telescope – comprising 3,000 dish antennas covering a collecting area of one square kilometre – will be 50 times more sensitive and 10,000 times faster than the world’s current most powerful radio telescopes.

Ten countries – Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden and the UK – are currently involved in building the world’s largest telescope. The non-profit international SKA Organisation based in Manchester is managing the project.

The SKA Organisation expects to spend US$125 million to US$190 million a year on operating and maintaining the telescope. It will cover the costs of construction and is actively recruiting other countries to join.

The SKA will be built in South Africa and Australia and multiple spinoffs will be enjoyed by outstations in eight African partner countries: Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia.

When complete the SKA will enable radio astronomers to understand how stars and galaxies formed, and how they evolved over time, and perhaps to detect life elsewhere in the universe.

Some benefits to come out of this massive international science project include the generation of new knowledge and knowledge workers – young scientists and engineers with cutting-edge skills and expertise in a wide range of scarce and innovative fields.