A request for proposals (RfP) for the pre-construction phase of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope to be built in South Africa has been issued to attract international companies’ collaboration.
The United Kingdom-based SKA Organisation, the international body which heads the project, has opened the submission of work package proposals with regards to the key system design for the telescope so that developments for the blueprints of the instrument can be used as a platform to issue tenders from.
Also responsible for the MeerKAT radio in South Africa, among other SKA South Africa (SA) activities, the SKA Organisation is determined to involve the local industry in the construction of the MeerKAT.
With regards to the development of the MeerKAT, the SKA Organisation stated: “The engineering team and local industries have been in discussions with their international peers to form consortia that will respond to the RfP.”
Furthermore, SKA SA is said to be in the process of subsidy programme finalisation.
“Local industry and institutions will be assisted to participate in this preparatory phase of the SKA on a shared risk basis, in order to develop the expertise, competency and know how to be internationally competitive in bidding for SKA contracts when the telescope is built,” a report announced last week.
HumanIPO reported last week on the technological challenges of data storage to be produced by the SKA.
SKA recently partnered with IBM for computing purposes.
As now declared open, the pre-construction phase will last until December 2016, followed by two construction phases.
The first phase will start in 2016 and end as the second phase will pick up from 2020 to its completion in 2024.
