Just days before the site advisory committee gives its verdict, Tania Rabesandratana finds out how European politics may influence the decision on the location of the Square Kilometre Array telescope.
A supercomputer or a biology laboratory can be located pretty much anywhere. But finding the right site for a €1.5-billion mega telescope is a trickier decision. And when politics enters the playing field, things can become even more complex, as demonstrated by the bidding war that has arisen between Australia and New Zealand, and their competitor South Africa, to host the Square Kilometre Array.
The SKA will consist of thousands of antennae spread over a distance of more than 3,000km to simulate a single, ultra-sensitive giant telescope. It will enable research into how the first stars and galaxies were formed after the Big Bang.
The ideal location for the SKA depends on a range of physical and environmental factors, as well as the available political and legal framework. “The world as a whole has to benefit from the telescope, and everybody has to see a maximum return on investment, so we need the best possible site,” says Brian Boyle, SKA project director for Australia and New Zealand.
However, choosing the location has become a political issue as much as a scientific one, as bidders try to get decision-makers onto their side. European countries have committed to pay half of the pre-construction costs and have a say in choosing the SKA’s location, so both bidders have stepped up their lobbying in Brussels.
In November, a group of five MEPs from different political sides released a written declaration called “Science capacity building in Africa: promoting European-African radio astronomy partnerships”. In an obvious lobbying push for the African bid, they called on the EU to invest in radio astronomy infrastructure in Africa.
But the ambassadors from Australia and New Zealand to the EU countered the written declaration. “We are concerned at the timing of the written declaration, which could be seen as an attempt to influence the outcome of the SKA site selection process. In particular its reference to “Africa’s unique competitive advantage in the study of radio astronomy is misleading in this context,” the ambassadors wrote in a letter sent to all MEPs on 19 January.
To become an official EU working document the declaration must be signed by a majority of MEPs by 16 February. Australia and New Zealand have urged the European Parliament to delay submitting the declaration until after the telescope’s location has been chosen.
The SKA’s advisory committee will give its opinion on the telescope’s location to the SKA board in mid-February, but that recommendation will stay confidential until March or April, after negotiations with the selected site are completed. At present, the committee is still assessing the two sites according to a set of precise criteria, including for instance man-made radio interference from mobile phones or TVs; the atmosphere’s characteristics; or the price of power supply and maintenance activities.
Both sides say they offer excellent conditions to locate the telescope’s antennae, with low population density and low radio interference. Africa points out it is closer to Europe and in the same time zones as most EU countries, and claims that its operations and infrastructure, including in particular fibre optics networks, would be much cheaper than Australia’s.
On the other hand, Australia is a very stable country with a long astronomical history and a well-developed community of radio astronomers. Plus, extending the telescope to New Zealand would allow the SKA to increase the minimum required distance between two dishes from 3,000km up to 5,000km. Australia and New Zealand have described their site’s assets in more than 1,000 pages, gathering input from more than 40 organisations.
In short, Africa appears to be a riskier choice than Australia. But the MEPs who signed the parliamentary declaration argue precisely that Africa should be given a chance to bloom. Miguel Angel Martínez, a socialist MEP from Spain, said in a statement: “Hi-tech research projects attract youth towards scientific studies, offer new employment opportunities, and develop basic services and infrastructures. This is why I see European involvement in African radio astronomy as a possible driver of socioeconomic change.”
But Boyle counters: “Of course there is considerable political interest in the project. But whatever advice politicians receive should be strongly based on the telescope’s ability to maximise science.”
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Square Kilometre Array
* Three EU countries (Italy, Netherlands and UK) plus Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and China have committed to spend €69 million to fund the project before construction starts in 2016. More countries are expected to join the SKA organisation at a later stage
* Estimated construction costs are €1.5 billion
* Estimated operation costs are €150-200m a year
* The two short-listed sites are either Australia and New Zealand or nine African countries (South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Mauritius, Madagascar, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana and Mozambique)