SKADS: Square Kilometre Array Design Studies

European radio astronomers were the first to outline the basic rationale for such a telescope over ten years ago. As a result of nationally-funded work European radio astronomers and engineers are now in a position to develop a fundamentally new design concept for the SKA during the course of this Design Study (SKADS).

The SKADS Consortium, consisting of 29 institutes from around the globe, was awarded funding by the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) to further develop and demonstrate the Aperture Array concept suitable for the SKA, to develop and select the enabling technologies and to arrive at a system design for the SKA.

SKA and Europe

Although the core of the SKA will not be sited within Europe, long-baseline stations could be sited in Europe and it is certain that, with advances in communications technology over the next ten years, the overall SKA will in part be controlled, and observations collected and analysed from within Europe.

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