ASKAP

The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) is a technology demonstrator for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), aimed in the mid-frequency range. It will achieve instantaneous wide-area imaging through the development and deployment of phased-array feed (PAF) systems on parabolic reflectors. The large field-of-view makes ASKAP an unprecedented synoptic telescope that will make substantial advances in SKA key sciences.

The $14.6M Astronmy NCRIS portion of ASKAP's budget is allocated to funding the Digital System, comprising of the beamformers and the central correlator, which is one of the primary enabling technologies for ASKAP. The milestones and budget are available in the attachments to the CSIRO NCRIS sub-contract.

Status

The first PAF has been tested on the Parkes Testbed Facility. Results indicate the lowest system temperature of any wide-band PAF in the world. The Digital, Analogue and Computing systems have all held Preliminary Design Reviews that have confirmed the work to-date. The ASKAP digital design will be an evolution of the Boolardy Engineering Test Array (BETA) design with upgraded electronics. BETA is a six antenna system that will consist of the full production antenna and the protype digital engineering system ES1. ES1 will be a proof-of-concept demonstrator and a software development platform. It will serve as the basic design for cost and power reduction for ES2, the first ASKAP production digital electronics systems.

The first of the 36 antennas was delivered to Fremantle in December 2009 in preparation for installation at the Murchison Radio Observatory (MRO). The manufacture of the ASKAP Digital Systems is expected to start in 2010-2011. The full 36 antenna ASKAP is expected to be ready for science observations by 2013.

Links

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