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E-book The Square Kilometre Array : A Science Mega-Project in the Making, 1990-2012

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Penilaian

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This is a book about a grand vision radio telescope project called the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and its transition from a global grass-roots collaboration among astronomers and engineers in the early 1990s to a formal legal entity two decades later, on the path towards an Inter-Governmental Organisation constructing a science mega-project. The story of the SKA’s development is one of ground-breaking science ideas, innovative engineering, and global collaboration. It is one of the few examples of a community-driven global project that has demonstrated the perseverance and clarity of purpose needed to develop into a treaty-based science mega-project without the benefit of an existing large organisation to act as host in its formative years. There are striking similarities to the formation of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) which started as an astronomer-driven vision in 1953 to build a large optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere and, a decade later, became a treaty organi-sation based on a Convention among governments largely modelled on the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) (Blaauw, 1991). The development of the SKA has been a long and complex story, reflecting the many issues faced in creating a scientifically ground-breaking but affordable design, choosing a site, and creating a viable global organisation starting from a simple working group established by the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) in 1993. When complete, the SKA will take its place as one of the Great Observatories of the mid twenty-first century alongside the Atacama Large Millimetre/ submillimetre Array (ALMA), the James Webb Space Telescope, the Cerenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the large optical telescopes under construction (ELT, TMT, and GMT), and the gravitational wave observatories (LIGO, VIRGO, KAGRA). This historical account will take the reader from the emergence of the SKA concept through to the decision on where to locate the telescope, in 2012. A number of brief overviews of the SKA history, or elements of it, have already been published by Ekers (2012), Noordam (2012), Butcher (2015), Kellermann et al. (2020), and Kellermann and Bouton (2023). At the time of writing in 2023, construction of the first phase of the SKA has now started after a further decade of design and development involving hundreds of scientists, engineers and administrators around the world.21 IntroductionLike any big idea, the SKA did not emerge ex nihilo. As radio astronomy flourished and matured as a scientific discipline after World War II using technology pioneered in the war period,1 many different concepts for radio telescopes were discussed, and some were built. In the process a rich legacy of radio astronomy projects, large and small, was created (see Chap. 2), several of which had direct influence on the SKA in terms of its design and ambition. Others had a more indirect influence in terms of defining the state of the art of what could be built at any particular epoch, or they were unfunded visionary proposals that provided a more distant goal for the community to strive towards. It is beyond the scope of this book to describe the development of radio astron-omy around the world, and the scientific insights generated, in the years before the emergence of the SKA. The reader is referred to a number of books that cover parts of the history, some from national perspectives—(Sullivan, 2009) covering all radio astronomy pre-1953; (Edge & Mulkay, 1976) primarily on UK radio astronomy; (Raimond & Genee, 2011) on The Netherlands; (Kellermann et al., 2020) on the USA; (Goss et al., 2023) on Australia; and (Baars, 2021) on global radio astronomy history from the perspective of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI). In this Introduction, we will provide the context in which the SKA was born as a science mega-project. first phase of the SKA has now started after a further decade of design and development involving hundreds of scientists, engineers and administrators around the world.21 IntroductionLike any big idea, the SKA did not emerge ex nihilo. As radio astronomy flourished and matured as a scientific discipline after World War II using technology pioneered in the war period,1 many different concepts for radio telescopes were discussed, and some were built. In the process a rich legacy of radio astronomy projects, large and small, was created (see Chap. 2), several of which had direct influence on the SKA in terms of its design and ambition. Others had a more indirect influence in terms of defining the state of the art of what could be built at any particular epoch, or they were unfunded visionary proposals that provided a more distant goal for the community to strive towards. It is beyond the scope of this book to describe the development of radio astron-omy around the world, and the scientific insights generated, in the years before the emergence of the SKA. The reader is referred to a number of books that cover parts of the history, some from national perspectives—(Sullivan, 2009) covering all radio astronomy pre-1953; (Edge & Mulkay, 1976) primarily on UK radio astronomy; (Raimond & Genee, 2011) on The Netherlands; (Kellermann et al., 2020) on the USA; (Goss et al., 2023) on Australia; and (Baars, 2021) on global radio astronomy history from the perspective of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI). In this Introduction, we will provide the context in which the SKA was born as a science mega-project. Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry, VLBI). The scale of the project dictated that in addition to a strong science case, innovative technologies would need to be devel-oped to keep costs down, and national and international sources of design and construction funds would need to be sought. As the project progressed, its large scale brought science and governmental political aspects to the fore including its long-term governance structure, the location of the telescope itself and its headquar-ters, and the accommodation of differing national motivations for joining the project including the engagement of industry. In addition, the political, sociological and cultural differences across the global partnership were not always as easy to accom-modate in more formal structures as had been the case in earlier simpler projects. We trace the paths taken in solving these many concurrent issues as well as the successes and failures along the way and reflect on SKA as an enterprise through the lens of hindsight.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

522.6 SCH t

Penerbit

Switzerland : Springer Nature., 2024

Deskripsi Fisik

645 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9783031513749

Klasifikasi

522.6

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

-

Subjek

Special Methods of Observation

Info Detail Spesifik

-

Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

-

Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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