❓ The Minister updates the house on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, highlighting WA's role in hosting a major component and the associated economic, scientific, and technological benefits. The government has committed significant funding to the project.
AnsweredQoN 287Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
SQUARE
KILOMETRE ARRAY PROJECT
287. Mr I.C. BLAYNEY to the
Minister for Science and Innovation:
I understand our government is committed to promoting science
and innovation in this state. Can the minister please update the house on the
progress of the Square Kilometre Array project?
KILOMETRE ARRAY PROJECT
287. Mr I.C. BLAYNEY to the
Minister for Science and Innovation:
I understand our government is committed to promoting science
and innovation in this state. Can the minister please update the house on the
progress of the Square Kilometre Array project?
AnswerView source ↗
I acknowledge that the member for Geraldton has taken a
strong interest in this project, which is not surprising given the location of
his electorate and where this project will be located in Western Australia on
Boolardy station in the Murchison region.
It is important that as a government, Parliament and
community we encourage scientific research, development, innovation and,
hopefully, commercialisation in Western Australia to diversify our economy. We
estimate that in the current financial year, 2011–12, approximately
$241 million has been expended over all state government agencies on scientific
research in this state. That includes health, agriculture and the environment,
as well as direct grants through the science portfolio. The Square Kilometre
Array international science project, which will produce the world's
largest radio telescope, has now been in development as a concept for close to
two decades. In the last six years or so, sites for the location of the project
have been short-listed. They are Australia–New Zealand, primarily in
Western Australia, and South Africa. Until the last couple of months, it was
expected that one of those two locations would be focused on. In the end, the
SKA organisation made the decision to adopt a dual-site option. We are pleased that Western Australia
will therefore host a major component of the SKA project. It recognises our
capacity to deliver on science and to maximise the significant investment in
infrastructure and expertise that has already been made by both Western
Australian and Australian governments. Indeed, the dual-site decision takes
advantage of the fact that there
has been a substantial investment in both sites—Australia–New
Zealand and South Africa—over the past several years.
The state government has committed approximately $70 million
to the site here in Western Australia; $51.3 million has been committed by the current state government and the
remainder was committed to prior to the change of government. The commonwealth
government has committed approximately $347 million to support the bid by
Australia–New Zealand. It is an investment that by definition has had
bipartisan support at both the state and federal government levels, and it will
provide the opportunity to co-host a unique research facility which is of
global scale and significance and which will have scientific, technological,
commercial, reputational and social benefits to our state and country. These
will include direct foreign investment in infrastructure and technology
development, economic diversification, employment opportunities, improved
science education and regional development.
The investment has enabled the development of the Australian
Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder project, which is the 36-antenna radio
telescope precursor project at the Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory on
Boolardy station in the Murchison, as I mentioned. Over the expected 30-year
lifespan, ASKAP will reinforce Western Australia's international
reputation as a world leader in radio astronomy and the associated sciences.
One important aspect of this project being located in Western Australia has
been the establishment and the investment in the International Centre for Radio
Astronomy Research, ICRAR, which is headed by Professor Peter Quinn. ICRAR now
has a critical mass of 70 staff and 30 PhD students, more than half of whom
have been attracted to Perth from overseas.
Another important aspect of this project is the information
technology aspects and the fact that the project will involve huge amounts of
data-intensive research and very large amounts of data collection, transfer,
processing and storage. We expect that there will be a range of research and
development and then, hopefully, commercialisation opportunities out of the
information technology aspects.
Some of the information technology facts about this project
are interesting and worth putting on record. For example, the data collected by
the SKA in a single day would take nearly two million years to play back on an
iPod and will generate enough raw data to fill 15 million 64-gigabyte iPods
every day. The SKA central computer will have the processing power of about 100
million personal computers and will use enough optical fibre to wrap around the
earth twice. The dishes of the SKA will produce 10 times the global internet
traffic, while the aperture arrays in the SKA can produce more than 100 times
the global internet traffic. One other aspect is that the supercomputer will
perform 10 18 operations per second, which is equivalent to the
number of stars in three million Milky Way galaxies, to process all the data
that the SKA will produce. Finally, the SKA will be so sensitive that it will
be able to detect an airport radar on a planet 50 light years away.
It is an inspirational project. It is very fortunate that a
major component of it will be located in Western Australia. We look forward to
the construction of phase 1 of the SKA project between 2016 and 2019 and
further development through phase 2, all of which will build on the investment,
as I said, that has been made by Western Australian and Australian governments over
the past five or six years.
strong interest in this project, which is not surprising given the location of
his electorate and where this project will be located in Western Australia on
Boolardy station in the Murchison region.
It is important that as a government, Parliament and
community we encourage scientific research, development, innovation and,
hopefully, commercialisation in Western Australia to diversify our economy. We
estimate that in the current financial year, 2011–12, approximately
$241 million has been expended over all state government agencies on scientific
research in this state. That includes health, agriculture and the environment,
as well as direct grants through the science portfolio. The Square Kilometre
Array international science project, which will produce the world's
largest radio telescope, has now been in development as a concept for close to
two decades. In the last six years or so, sites for the location of the project
have been short-listed. They are Australia–New Zealand, primarily in
Western Australia, and South Africa. Until the last couple of months, it was
expected that one of those two locations would be focused on. In the end, the
SKA organisation made the decision to adopt a dual-site option. We are pleased that Western Australia
will therefore host a major component of the SKA project. It recognises our
capacity to deliver on science and to maximise the significant investment in
infrastructure and expertise that has already been made by both Western
Australian and Australian governments. Indeed, the dual-site decision takes
advantage of the fact that there
has been a substantial investment in both sites—Australia–New
Zealand and South Africa—over the past several years.
The state government has committed approximately $70 million
to the site here in Western Australia; $51.3 million has been committed by the current state government and the
remainder was committed to prior to the change of government. The commonwealth
government has committed approximately $347 million to support the bid by
Australia–New Zealand. It is an investment that by definition has had
bipartisan support at both the state and federal government levels, and it will
provide the opportunity to co-host a unique research facility which is of
global scale and significance and which will have scientific, technological,
commercial, reputational and social benefits to our state and country. These
will include direct foreign investment in infrastructure and technology
development, economic diversification, employment opportunities, improved
science education and regional development.
The investment has enabled the development of the Australian
Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder project, which is the 36-antenna radio
telescope precursor project at the Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory on
Boolardy station in the Murchison, as I mentioned. Over the expected 30-year
lifespan, ASKAP will reinforce Western Australia's international
reputation as a world leader in radio astronomy and the associated sciences.
One important aspect of this project being located in Western Australia has
been the establishment and the investment in the International Centre for Radio
Astronomy Research, ICRAR, which is headed by Professor Peter Quinn. ICRAR now
has a critical mass of 70 staff and 30 PhD students, more than half of whom
have been attracted to Perth from overseas.
Another important aspect of this project is the information
technology aspects and the fact that the project will involve huge amounts of
data-intensive research and very large amounts of data collection, transfer,
processing and storage. We expect that there will be a range of research and
development and then, hopefully, commercialisation opportunities out of the
information technology aspects.
Some of the information technology facts about this project
are interesting and worth putting on record. For example, the data collected by
the SKA in a single day would take nearly two million years to play back on an
iPod and will generate enough raw data to fill 15 million 64-gigabyte iPods
every day. The SKA central computer will have the processing power of about 100
million personal computers and will use enough optical fibre to wrap around the
earth twice. The dishes of the SKA will produce 10 times the global internet
traffic, while the aperture arrays in the SKA can produce more than 100 times
the global internet traffic. One other aspect is that the supercomputer will
perform 10 18 operations per second, which is equivalent to the
number of stars in three million Milky Way galaxies, to process all the data
that the SKA will produce. Finally, the SKA will be so sensitive that it will
be able to detect an airport radar on a planet 50 light years away.
It is an inspirational project. It is very fortunate that a
major component of it will be located in Western Australia. We look forward to
the construction of phase 1 of the SKA project between 2016 and 2019 and
further development through phase 2, all of which will build on the investment,
as I said, that has been made by Western Australian and Australian governments over
the past five or six years.
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