Spring 2022 SKA-Low update

Our Geraldton presence at the interim Engineering Operations Centre (EOC) continues to grow.

We now have 10 people working at our EOC facility, with several positions filled awaiting their start date or currently being recruited. Since our last update, we’ve welcomed new staff members Angela Teale, Head of Engineering Operations; Darryl Jackson, Deputy Site Manager; Lahiru Raffel, Verification System Engineer; Danika Chandler, Administration Officer and Peter Sudran, Electrician. They join Site Manager Mark Bennett, Integration Engineer Felipe Gonzalez, Verification System Engineer Cameron McDonald, Radio Frequency Interference Engineer Paul van der Merwe, and HSE Manager Rob Grazziadelli to round out our current Geraldton team.

Nine smiling people sitting around a meeting room table with bright blue noticeboards on the walls surrounding them. — Welcome to new SKA-Low team members pictured here at the interim EOC. Credit: SKAO.

The EOC team has recently completed design work for some of the upgrades required to turn this into a state-of-the art support facility. The first significant change will be the delivery of a specialised data centre room in early November – a key part of the Integration Testing Facility that will be used to test the antennas prior to installation on site.

We’ve been joined by many visitors to the Perth and Geraldton SKAO offices over the past few months, as our team grows and SKA-Low activities increase. Several groups visited the MRO for their first view of the future SKA-Low telescope site, including members of the international Assembly, Integration and Verification team. Even at this early stage – before construction on site has started – these visits ensure the team has a good understanding of the challenges that will come not only with basic construction of the telescope, but also the critical tasks of bringing the components together to build a highly sensitive radio telescope.

We are looking forward to being able to mark the global start of SKAO telescope construction on site in Australia and South Africa towards the end of 2022. This media- and local stakeholder-focused event will celebrate the important partnership with the Wajarri Yamaji to establish the SKA-Low telescope on Country, after finalisation of the Indigenous Land Use Agreement.

Ant Schinckel, SKA-Low Site Construction Director, SKAO

Four smiling faces in yellow shirts sitting around a table with yellow iced cupcakes in the middle, celebrating RU OK day. — Some of the EOC team celebrating RUOK Day recently. Clockwise from front are Danika Chandler, Peter Sudran, Rob Grazziadelli and Angela Teale. Credit: SKAO