Construction of the Square Kilometre Array in South Africa will proceed on schedule and on budget, despite constraints on the electricity grid and a weak Rand, a senior project official has said.
Justin Jonas, associate director of science and engineering at SKA South Africa, told journalists visiting the SKA site in Carnarvon late last month that the national power utility Eskom’s rolling blackouts will not delay the manufacturing of dishes.
Jonas said that companies subcontracted to work on SKA are using diesel to ensure their 2017 deadline is met, which means they are not impacted by load shedding. The subcontractors will meet the cost of the diesel, he said.
“Of course there is a danger they could say we can’t afford diesel and this could cause a delay in schedule but for now we will meet the deadlines,” he added.
The SKA site, which is located on Losberg farm in the Northern Cape, also has back-up generators to ensure scientists can continue their work uninterrupted by Eskom’s power cuts, Jonas said.
The weakness of the South African Rand is another headache for the project, but this has been mitigated as far as possible by measures that include negotiating fixed-price contracts with subcontractors, said Jonas. “Seventy-five per cent of the material is locally sourced and that reduces risk in the face of the currency fluctuations,” he said.
Jonas was speaking on the sidelines of the unveiling of the second dish of MeerKat, the precursor instrument to the SKA, on 28 February. Deputy South African president Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled the dish, which has been named Bernie Fanaroff after the director of SKA South Africa who will retire at the end of 2015.
Jonas said the 64-dish MeerKat would have an open sky policy allowing five years observing time to international teams.
“If you want to do the best possible science in the country, an open sky is the way to go,” said Jonas. “For MeerKat to do the most exciting science we need to bring in the best possible scientists from around the world.”
However, observation time for the SKA, when it opens, may be limited to countries that are contributing funding to the project, he added.