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The Forum > Article Comments > Star gazing and politics: battling for the Square Kilometre Array > Comments

Star gazing and politics: battling for the Square Kilometre Array : Comments

By Binoy Kampmark, published 29/5/2012

It looked at one stage as though all of the world's biggest radio telescope would be in Africa rather than Oceania.

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And after the political decisions are made the money needs to be found - and that is where this project will most probably disappear under the Indian Ocean. As recession and then depression bites in Europe and governements struggle with debta and rising unemployment, this sort of project will be put on hold - indefinitely. What little stimulus money exists (if any) could be better spent in Europe to create more employment there.
Posted by michael_in_adelaide, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 9:57:32 AM
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For once I am in agreement with Michael_in_Adelaide.. (don't worry Michael it won't last).

Although the SKA organisation may have given much of the project to South Africa, the only part that will be up and running for several years at least, will be the 30 or radio dishes at Murchison in WA, which are due to start operating in earnest late this year.. The MeerKat dishes in South Africa haven't been built yet.

As Australia is likely to be one of the few countries involved with any budgetary capacity to sling money at the SKA, that may be so for many more years..
Posted by Curmudgeon, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 11:08:47 AM
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According to their web site, "The SKA could detect organic molecules in space" and "The SKA will be so sensitive that it will be able to detect an airport radar on a planet 50 light years away."

http://www.skatelescope.org/

That's great.

We could use it to find some of Tony Abbott's policies, couldn't we. That would be fun.
Posted by Pericles, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 11:51:25 AM
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...or, in the interests of balance, Julia Gillard's principles.
Posted by Pericles, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 4:00:06 PM
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Yes, politicians, during a period of "austerity", are more likely to spend money on circuses such as the Olympics than projects such as the SKA.
Posted by mac, Wednesday, 30 May 2012 9:10:08 PM
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Just to put that design sensitivity into some perspective…

If the equivalent of such "an airport radar on a planet 50 light years away" was within the flight path of Voyager 1 – most people remember probes but not necessarily ones from 33 years ago – how long would it take to get there?

Voyager is currently a little over 16.5 light-hours from the sun and tooling along at 61,400 km an hour.

And, assuming that planet has some of Tony Abbott's policies and Julia Gillard's principles Voyager 1 will get to them in about 580,000 years!

So no chance of detecting them in our lifetime…
Posted by WmTrevor, Thursday, 31 May 2012 8:02:49 PM
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