The Chinese government announced its intent to enter into a new phase of its involvement in the development project of the SKA radio telescope by signing a letter of intent with the SKA Organisation that runs it. Vice Minister Jianlin Cao from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) signed the letter of intent on behalf of his government. With this act, China the joins nations that are turning the SKA into an intergovernmental organization with a treaty to formalize the relationship between the project and its members.

SKA (Square Kilometre Array) is one of the biggest scientific projects of this beginning of the third millennium and represents the next generation of radio astronomical instruments. So far, Australia, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom were the countries fully involved in the development of SKA but somehow China was also part of the project, although not at the same level.

China is taking part in the design of the SKA, initially through the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) and since 2012 through the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). Chinese industry, research institutions and universities are involved in 6 of the 11 international design consortia, including Dish (DSH), Low-Frequency Aperture Array (LFAA), Mid-Frequency Aperture Array (MFAA), Signal and Data Transport (SaDT), Science Data Processor (SDP) and Wideband Single Pixel Feeds (WBSPF).

The treaty to regulate the SKA si scheduled to be signed by the member countries in 2016 and its construction is scheduled to begin in 2018. It’s a really huge project that eventually will include thousands of antennas. In 2012 it was decided to divide the antennas into two main areas: in Australia, with some receiving stations in New Zealand, and South Africa, with some receiving stations in the neighboring countries.

It will still take years to complete a project of this size. The first observations could start as early as 2020 but its expansion is expected to continue until 2030. The technologies needed to build the SKA are under development and will also contribute to fields such as computer science since this radio telescope will detect huge amounts of information that must be managed. We can hope that China’s commitment will help these advancements.

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