NZ/Aussie bid has ‘80% chance’ of winning $4bn megascience project

ANZACS PHONE HOME: The science fiction of a massive array of 5000 dishes is about to become science fact, and if an Australia-New Zealand bid is successful, 40 radio telescopes like AUT University's in Warkworth (pictured above) will be built here, at $2 million a pop. NZ's share of the tab would be around $150 million.

New Zealand and overseas astronomers will meet in Auckland this week to discuss the upcoming Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project - a proposed series of 5000 radio dishes that could probe deep space for signs of intelligent life, or take precise measurements closer to home that could help predict earthquakes.

This will be more than just an esoteric gathering of astro-geeks.

The joint transtasman joint cabinet meeting in August saw John Key agree to back the SKA, one of Aussie prime minister Kevin Rudd's pet projects.

Calling for up to 5000 satellite dishes, working as one giant virtual radio telescope, the SKA will only be matched in scale by the Large Hadron Collider and the International Space Station, and it comes with a price tag to match: $3 billion to $4 billion - covering a build that would take place between 2012 and 2020.

Economic Development Minister Gerry Brownlee made the formal announcement that New Zealand would join Australia's bid for the $3.1 billion Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project.

Mr Brownlee said the SKA project promises to be a top global science project of the 21st century, using one of the world's most powerful computers, to explore fundamental questions in science. "This is truly megascience," said Mr Brownlee.

Two consortiums are still in the running to win the right to build the SKA: Australia, backed by New Zealand, and a South Africa-led effort. The winner will be decided in 2012.

80% chance of winning
Speaking ahead of the conference, AUT University’s Institute of Radioastronomy and Space Research Professor Sergei Gulyaev (pictured) said he rates the ANZAC effort as having an 80% chance of winning the bid.

One dish down, 39 to go
Part of the reason: we have a head start. AUT University, backed by a major IBM sponsorship, has already spent $2 million on a satellite dish to kick-start the New Zealand effort.

A similar effort in Western Australia, bankrolled to the tune of $A200 million by the Australian federal government (and with IBM again chipping in) already has dozens of dishes up and running.

South Africa also has dishes up and running, but while it could match an Australian bid in geographical spread (the more widely spaced the satellites, the better the image), it cannot match the literal spread of an Australia-New Zealand effort.

And while Professor Gulyaev doesn't say it, the political instability of Australasia, and what many scientists may see as its superior liveability (especially compared to some of the satellites countries involved in South Africa's bid) could play a part. Already, one sider says the Anzac bid had attracted a better slate of international scientists.

Up to 40 dishes in NZ, at $2 million a pop
If Australia and New Zealand win, up to 5000 satellite dishes will be constructed across the two countries, including two stations on our side of the Tasman, said Mr Brownlee. Each station will have between 15 to 20 radio telescope dishes, with the hardware a lone costing $2 million a dish.

All up, New Zealand would be asked to chip in around $150 million.

Countries all around the world will chip in, and in return data from the SKA will be shared internationally.

Perhaps aware of potential backlash against spending on something that, well, isn't a World Cup, Professor Gulyanev points out the project will create many high-tech jobs, requiring 400 to 1000 man-years of software development.

Kordia salivates
And telco infrastructure companies are also already circling, including Kordia, whose chief executive Geoff Hunt told NBR last week that the SKA's super-massive transtasman bandwidth requirements would be key driver behind demand for a second Auckland-to-Wellington cable. 

A source close to AUT University's proof-of-concept project says the two sets of New Zealand satellite arrays would have to be as far apart as possible for maximum resolution. Assuming the project builds on the existing Warkworth satellite site north of Auckland, that implies the second array would be built somewhere in the south of the South Island.

The 2010 SKANZ conference hosted by AUT University from February 16 to 18 will reflect on the signing last year of a cooperative agreement by the New Zealand and Australian governments to work together towards hosting the SKA project down under and celebrate the first light of the AUT University radio telescope (Warkworth) - New Zealand’s first.