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R500 000 for Mozambique SKA site
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PDF This follows a decision by the countries to expedite the installation of Mozambique’s first radio telescope by early 2012 and submit the site readiness reports for the SKA bid on schedule.
Following a joint committee meeting held between the two countries last week, Science and Technology minister Naledi Pandor, committed to assisting Mozambique in establishing its Radio Astronomy Observatory (MRAO), which should reach operational levels by early next year.
The South African SKA Project Office and Department of Science and Technology (DST) will be tasked with developing a plan for the installation of the first radio telescope at Maluane.
The meeting also identified skills development and the training of students in radio astronomy as areas on which to focus to ensure that the partner countries participated in the SKA project.
“This will demonstrate Africa’s collective determination and capacity to the international SKA community ahead of the final decision on the host of the SKA. However, determined and focused effort will be required from both countries if we are to succeed, and both countries will need to mobilise the necessary financial, planning, skills development and engineering resources urgently,” the DST stated.
The radio telescope in Maluane will be used for postgraduate student research and teaching programmes at Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique.
The SKA site stations in Mozambique, which are in the central region, will form part of the global facility built by the global SKA consortium if Africa wins the bid.
The SKA site selection group has set 15 September 2011 as the deadline for both South Africa and Australia to submit their site readiness reports which should include details of, amongst other requirements, the facilitation of access to inexpensive research bandwidth.
South Africa is bidding to host the SKA on behalf of Africa. The African bid includes eight partner and associate countries, namely, Mozambique, Zambia, Mauritius, Madagascar, Ghana, Kenya, Botswana and Namibia.
South Africa and Mozambique signed a bilateral agreement on science and technology cooperation in July 2006 and since then there have been two joint committee meetings. Mozambique and South Africa also established research projects and hosted a workshop on climate change, and are actively collaborating on the SKA project.
