Murchison Wide-field Array underway
Written by Hope Holborow
Development of the Murchison Wide-field Array (MWA) is underway with local industry building the first major pieces of a revolutionary new radio telescope in Western Australia.
The MWA is one of three Square Kilometer Array (SKA) precursors proving the technology on the path to the SKA, as well as pursuing some of the early aspects of the SKA.
Curtin University leads the Australian contribution to the $30 million project, which is being built by a consortium of around 13 institutions over four countries (Australia, USA, India and New Zealand).
Fremantle-based high-technology company Poseidon Scientific Instruments (PSI) has been awarded a $1.3 million by Curtin to build receivers for the system.
Curtin Professor of Radio astronomy and ICRAR Deputy Director Prof Steven Tingay says the telescopes are development prototype pathfinder instruments as well as being highly scientifically capable in their own right.
“The MWA is a low frequency telescope which uses quite simple antenna technologies to receive the signals. Those signals then need to be converted into a digital format for processing and the electronics to do that conversion is called a receiver,” Prof Tingay says.
“A receiver is a box of around 2m x 2m x 1m containing a very complicated set of electronics. The box needs to sit out in the environment next to the antennas, so the enclosure must be weather-tight.”
PSI is building and integrating the electronics and has also developed the Radio-Frequency-Interference (RFI) tight enclosure.
“[The receiver] has to be RFI tight and highly shielded so that the electronics don’t produce radio emission which interferes with the radio emission that we want to observe,” Prof Tingay says.
“[PSI have] built prototypes and we have now issued them the contract for the production of the final system which is 16 receivers.”
The instrument will consist of 128 antennas connected to the 16 receivers in groups of eight. Those 128 antennas will be spread out over an area of about 3km.
The MWA is the only low frequency SKA precursor. Also being built in WA is the second telescope known as ASKAP—a dish-based telescope being built by CSIRO. The third precursor “Meerkat” is also a dish-based telescope being built in South Africa.
The telescope will be located at the Murchison Radio Astronomy Observatory near Boolardy station in the Murchison Shire, about 10 hours drive from Perth on a site owned and operated by CSIRO.
Prof Tingay says it is hoped the full instrument will be completed by November 2012.
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