idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
Germany’s Federal Research Minister Dorothee Bär has emphasised the impact of SKAO membership during an event in Berlin to mark a significant SKAO construction contract being awarded to a German technology company
Mainz-based OHB Digital Connect will supply 86 highly sensitive receivers for the SKA-Mid radio telescope, currently under construction in South Africa’s Northern Cape. The €10.7m contract is the first to be awarded to Germany since it joined the Observatory just under a year ago.
The contract signing ceremony took place on the sidelines of the launch of Germany’s ‘High-tech agenda Deutschland’, attended by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and several cabinet ministers at the EUREF Campus in Berlin.
„The collaboration between SKAO and OHB Digital Connect strengthens the technological sovereignty and innovative power of Germany and Europe,” Minister Dorothee Bär said. “I am delighted that both the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn and the new German Center for Astrophysics in Görlitz are able to contribute their considerable expertise here. This is a great example that uses several levers of the German Hightech Agenda.“
“It’s a great pleasure to celebrate this significant SKAO construction contract for German industry during the launch of the national high-tech agenda, and in the presence of Minister Bär,” said Dr Simon Berry, SKAO Deputy Director-General. “It reinforces not only the expertise that Germany has in radio astronomy technology, which is renowned, but also how membership of the SKAO enables national industry to stay at the cutting edge by developing the next-generation technologies which are essential for our telescopes.”
Radio telescope receivers convert the electromagnetic waves collected by the antennas into a usable electrical signal. The SKAO has stringent performance and functional requirements for its receivers, including the need to be electronically “low noise” so as not to pollute the faint astronomical signals being observed.
The receivers will detect radio signals in the frequency range known as Band 5, from 4.6 to 15.4 GHz, currently the highest frequencies SKA will observe. They will sit alongside receivers sensitive to lower frequencies which are being developed in Sweden and South Africa.
The contract was signed by representatives from the SKAO and OHB Digital Connect, alongside leaders from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Radio astronomy (MPIfR) - experts in developing receivers for radio astronomy - and the German Centre for Astrophysics (DZA), which are supporting the delivery of the Band 5 contract.
“The MPIfR has been involved in the SKA project since its inception, and it is
deeply gratifying to see the telescope being realised, thanks in no small part to
the expertise of the institute,” says Director Prof. Michael Kramer, who is also Germany’s representative on the SKAO Council.
OHB Digital Connect previously developed the antennas for MeerKAT+, the extension of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory’s MeerKAT radio telescope, which will be incorporated into the SKA array in South Africa.
“This project is another important milestone for us as we expand our position as a leading system provider for ground-based astronomy and strengthen our long-standing partnerships with the scientific community," says Dennis Winkelmann, Managing Director OHB Digital Connect. “We are proud to contribute to this groundbreaking project and are grateful for the trust placed in us by the SKAO.”
----------------------------------------------------
Further Informations
SKAO: The SKAO, formally known as the SKA Observatory, is an intergovernmental organisation composed of Member States from five continents and headquartered in the UK. Its mission is to build and operate cutting-edge radio telescopes to transform our understanding of the Universe, and deliver benefits to society through global collaboration and innovation.Its two telescopes, each composed of hundreds of dishes and thousands of antennas, will be constructed in South Africa and Australia and be the two most advanced radio telescopes on Earth. A later expansion is envisioned in both countries and other African partner countries.
Together with other state-of-the-art research facilities, the SKAO’s telescopes will explore the unknown frontiers of science and deepen our understanding of key processes, including the formation and evolution of galaxies, fundamental physics in extreme environments and the origins of life. Through the development of innovative technologies and its contribution to addressing societal challenges, the SKAO will play its part to address the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and deliver significant benefits across its membership and beyond.
The SKAO recognises and acknowledges the Indigenous peoples and cultures that have traditionally lived on the lands on which the SKAO facilities are located.
MeerKAT: Built and operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), the MeerKAT telescope with 64 antennas is the largest radio telescope in the southern hemisphere and one of two SKA precursor instruments. The radio telescope, located in the Karoo region, will soon be supplemented by an additional number of antennas as part of the "MeerKAT+" project, which will be jointly funded by SARAO and the Max Planck Society (MPG) in Germany from 2019 and with the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) from 2020. The DZA will also participate and create additional technical and scientific opportunities. The telescope will later be gradually integrated into SKAO's mid-telescope in South Africa.
VdR: The Association for Data-Intensive Radio Astronomy (VdR) pools national research and development expertise in the field of data-intensive radio astronomy. In the era of a new generation of highly sensitive telescopes (such as LOFAR, MeerKAT, SKAO), radio astronomy is facing challenges that require close cooperation between those involved at national level. The extensive and complex data volumes from these telescopes require the development of new processing and analysis technologies in the fields of big data and machine learning. The association coordinates and supports the scientific, organizational and technical aspects for the development, construction and networking of the data infrastructure required for the use of data-intensive radio telescopes.
DZA: The concept of the German Centre for Astrophysics includes cutting-edge astronomical research. This extends across the entire electromagnetic spectrum into the gravitational wave window. In the initial phase, thanks to the many synergies, there will be a concentration on radio and gravitational-wave astronomy. In the long term, the DZA will be dedicated to all astronomical data. Moreover, data streams from all over the world will be pooled and processed at the DZA. This includes those from future large telescopes, such as the SKA observatory or the Einstein telescope. The data from these telescopes will require several times the data traffic on today's Internet and thus new technologies. The center is intended to deal with the data tsunami and in this way also accelerate the digitization of Germany. The DZA will be a technology center where, among other things, new semiconductor sensors, silicon optics and control techniques for observatories will be developed. Building on the experience and modern environment of industry in Saxony, new companies and further high-quality jobs will thus be created through spin-offs.
Dr. Gundolf Wieching
Head of Electronics Department
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn
Fon: +49 228 525-175
E-mail: wieching@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
Prof. Dr. Michael Kramer
Head of Research Dept. “Fundamental Physics in Radio Astronomy”
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn
Fon: +49 228 525-299 (Sekretariat)
E-mail: mkramer@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
Viola Tegethoff
Research Advisor
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn
Fon: +49 228 525-495
E-mail: vtegethoff@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
https://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/announcements/2025/8
Signing of the SKAO construction contract in Berlin by Simon Barry (SKAO), Dennis Winkelmann (OHB Di ...
Copyright: BMFTR/Hans-Joachim Rickel
Rendered Image for one of the receivers in the 4.6 to 15.4 GHz range.
Copyright: MPIfR / Rafael Castenholz
Merkmale dieser Pressemitteilung:
Journalisten, Studierende, Wirtschaftsvertreter, Wissenschaftler, jedermann
Physik / Astronomie
überregional
Kooperationen, Wissenschaftspolitik
Englisch
Sie können Suchbegriffe mit und, oder und / oder nicht verknüpfen, z. B. Philo nicht logie.
Verknüpfungen können Sie mit Klammern voneinander trennen, z. B. (Philo nicht logie) oder (Psycho und logie).
Zusammenhängende Worte werden als Wortgruppe gesucht, wenn Sie sie in Anführungsstriche setzen, z. B. „Bundesrepublik Deutschland“.
Die Erweiterte Suche können Sie auch nutzen, ohne Suchbegriffe einzugeben. Sie orientiert sich dann an den Kriterien, die Sie ausgewählt haben (z. B. nach dem Land oder dem Sachgebiet).
Haben Sie in einer Kategorie kein Kriterium ausgewählt, wird die gesamte Kategorie durchsucht (z.B. alle Sachgebiete oder alle Länder).
