THE system engineer working on the world’s largest telescope told delegates at a national space conference in the North East that there were “substantial opportunities” for British companies to get involved in the project.
Tim Stevenson said there were opportunities to supply a wide range of goods and services for the £1.2bn revolutionary Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope project during his speech at Spacetech, a conference held at NETPark (the North East Technology Park) in Sedgefield, County Durham.
Stevenson said the project would need IT on all scales – from microcontrollers to Exascale supercomputers – office, service and laboratory buildings, HVAC technology, power generation and distribution technology, including renewable technology.
“It will create thousands of high quality jobs, both at SPO (Ska Project Office) headquarters in the UK and at the sites of the telescope themselves. There are great opportunities for forward thinking companies,” he said.
“We’ll be looking for companies which can offer advanced manufacturing techniques and large production runs for the antennas and the millions of elements behind them.”
The SKA telescope is an international project and will comprise 3,000 dishes and will be the largest most sensitive telescope ever built.
It will be so powerful it will be capable of detecting signs of extra terrestrial life as well as revealing details of the history of the universe from the Big Bang onwards.
A decision is expected soon on where the telescope will be sited – either the deserts of Australia or South Africa – with initial construction beginning in 2016 and completion by 2024.
Spacetech, which was organised by the County Durham Development Company (CDDC), the strategic investment arm of Durham County Council, heard from several space industry experts.
Dr Ruth Mallors, director of the aerospace, aviation and defence Knowledge Transfer Network, urged delegates to maximise their chances of securing business by using the networks available to them and getting in front of the right people.
“The opportunities are huge in the space sector. There really is something for everyone,” said Dr Mallors.
“Businesses need to get on the road and look for key events where there are clusters of people whom they can talk to. Using Knowledge Transfer Networks, for example, you’re going to reach the scientists, the engineers and the technologists rather than knocking on the door of big companies and speaking to their sales people.
Catherine Johns, director of innovation development at CDDC, said: “Businesses have had a chance to learn from the industry experts how to capitalise on this burgeoning sector which is worth around £7.5bn annually in the UK alone.”
