MDA Space, a trusted mission partner to the rapidly expanding global space industry, today announced it has been awarded a contract by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) to support the development, construction and integration of game-changing radio telescope technology for the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), an international space exploration and astronomy project that seeks to further our understanding of the formation and evolution of the universe.
The SKAO is the most ambitious ground-based astronomy project ever undertaken, bringing together countries to build and operate two telescopes for the global scientific community. Canada announced today that has formally joined the SKAO, making it the tenth member of the intergovernmental organization that currently includes Australia, China, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.
The SKAO telescopes are made up of arrays of antennas, including hundreds of mid to high frequency antennas in South Africa and over 100,000 low-frequency antennas in Australia. As part of its contract with the NRC, MDA Space will develop the project's Correlator Beamformer, a powerful data processing engine that will collect and process the large volumes of cosmic signals received by the telescopes. Using state-of-the art embedded computing technologies designed by MDA Space in collaboration with the NRC, the signals will be processed thousands of times faster than average computer download speeds, giving scientists rapid access to vast quantities of new data and insight about the universe.
"MDA Space is proud to be contributing to this important international scientific endeavour that will listen and look out into space to expand our understanding of the universe," said Mike Greenley, CEO of MDA Space. "Projects of this size, scope and significance present a unique opportunity to showcase the expertise and innovation of Canadian astronomers, astrophysicists and industry while driving new discoveries and advancements in science and technology."
"SKAO has been a top priority for the Canadian astronomical community for over 20 years, and it is very exciting to see Canada's participation become a reality," said Dr. Luc Simard, Director General, NRC's Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre. "It opens the door to ground-breaking discoveries, cutting-edge technologies and societal benefits that will teach us a lot about the universe we live in and how a large international family of nations can explore it together."
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