In the Australian desert the amazing adventure of the SKA radio telescope is proceeding: INAF engineers together with australian colleagues concluded a few days ago the installation of the first prototype station of SKA-Low AAVS 2.0 (Aperture Array Verification System 2.0). And “Made in Italy” is the watchword!
This first prototype station includes 256 antennas aimed at universe observation in the 50-350MHz frequency spectrum. The installation was done at Murchison Radio Observatory, West Australia. And this is an overall Italian success story: the Italian engineers worked at installation together with Australian colleagues, the Italian Company Sirio Antenne realized the antennas, INAF and Consiglio Nazionale delle ricerche coped with the electromagnetic design, INAF developed active components and low noise amplifiers, together with the korean Company Asb, again INAF together with Sanitas EG and Optel developed the new acquisition modules, TPM (tile processing module).
See also INAF news Bosco d’antenne “made in Italy” per Ska
Main Photo – The antennas’ wood – Courtesy of Jader Monari