Largest Array SKA and Largest Dish FAST

  • Peng, Bo (Joint Laboratory for Radio Astronomy Technology, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
  • Published : 2012.10.17

Abstract

The largest array SKA (Square Kilometre Array) project was proposed by astronomers from 10 countries, and first coordinated by the LTWG (Large Telescope Working Group) formed at the General Assembly of URSI (International Union of Radio Science) in 1993. It enters the pre-construction phase (2012-2015), towards the 10% SKA construction (2016-2019) called SKA1 and the rest of SKA (2019-2023) called SKA 2, under the leadership of the SKA Organisation (SKAO) established on November 23, 2011. I will review the Chinese participation in the SKA project at national, regional and global levels in the past two decades. During such a Long March to the SKA, a number of national Megascience projects have taken root and have been (are being) successfully constructed, with costs at the 100 M US dollar level, including the largest dish FAST (Five-hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope), which can be seen as a forerunner of the KARST (Kilometre Area Radio Synthesis Telescope) project, being as one of the two LDSN (Large Diameter Small Number) concepts for realizing the SKA. A close look at the FAST project gives an impressive snapshot of the construction phase in China.

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