PowerPoint PresentationWillem Esterhuyse (Project Manager, MeerKAT)
Tracy Cheetham (Project Manager, MeerKAT Infrastructure)
in the audience:
Izak Theron T.L. Venkatasubramani
Phased Experimental Demonstrator (PED)
Build and test 4x3x2 focal plane array technology to decide
on
technical feasibility and technology maturity for possible
MeerKAT deployment. Completed 2006, considered to
be too high risk – technology not selected for further
development.
2006. 15m diameter single dish (composite materials)
prototype
system completed, tested, lessons learnt. Is now a
HartRAO instrument modified for pulsar observations.
2005. Simple interferometer built to develop software skills &
pilot remote control software for XDM. Completed – at SAAO Cape
Town
On the proposed SKA site in Karoo – 2009 to 2011. KAT-7 antennas
all completed, fitting out and commissioning under way
Advanced development & pre-production phases
MeerKAT CoDR & URS Freeze
panel for final selection of MeerKAT technologies and scope
sign-off
MeerKAT PDR & Spec Freeze
July 2011 Engineering specification freeze and detail engineering
design and risk mitigation
SKA Pre-construction Phase
Since 2005, careful planning of prototyping phases to drive down
risk
Prototyping phases were agreed upon in 2005 and have not been
changed since then.
2004
..excluded • Systems engineering, risk, project management,
configuration and logistics management
– All of which are healthy and going strong..
• PAPER & C-BASS – All of which are healthy and going
strong..
• The African VLBI network (AVN) – New, very exciting, going
strong..
• Human Capital Development – Healthy and going strong..
Karoo site
KAT-7
KAT-7 is an engineering prototype, an invaluable system for
learning, especially in the following areas: • On-site composite
dish manufacture (1st array of its kind in the world) • Selection
of cryogenic cooling systems • Rolling out a system on a remote
location with significant time pressures • Establishing a sensible,
but thorough system engineering process • Verifying analyses with
actual measurements, which will be invaluable in
specifying MeerKAT • Control and science processing
software/algorithm development • Build industry competence in the
area of radio astronomy instrumentation • Building experience on
managing and policing man-made and self-inflicted RFI
“The successful installation of the 7 cold receivers was a
significant milestone that marks the last
major hardware installation effort of the engineering team. It
coincides with the formal acceptance of the KAT-7 correlator, which
means that KAT-7 is ready for more in-depth
interferometric commissioning. The science processing team wasted
no time to start forming images with the new receivers.” (Willem
Esterhuyse, August 2011)
KAT-7 learning
An image was produced in September with 7 cold receivers is shown
below and compared to a publication of 1977 in order to verify
the
results.
KAT-7 Image – Sept ‘11
• Good physical understanding of current flow • Agreement between
(scale) modeling and measurements • KAT-7 learning will transfer to
MeerKAT
11
12
• Structural tests almost completed o Strength, stiffness, shear
properties o Fatigue o Creep
• Test program scheduled for completion Dec 2011
13
14
Manufacturing void (microscopic) – no evidence of deterioration in
thermal fatigue run-out test
15
16
Reflecting Surface: Mesh
• MeerKAT mesh to be similar to KAT-7 (Al, Φ250μm, 30/”, 100mm
overlap)
• Excellent predicted & measured reflection from UHF to
X-band
17
Radio Quality Tests on panels after having been submitted to
various environmental conditions in order to verify radio
performance
MeerKAT telescope and infrastructure
20 Start of 2004 05 06 07 08 10 14 11 13 15 16 22 17 18 19 21 09
12
{ Additional funding allocated, engineering team recruited,
XDM
built, MeerKAT conceptualized,
FringeFinder, KAT-7 infrastructure,
MeerKAT infrastructure roll-out
SKA Pre-construction Phase
PrepSKA
Timelines Still on track for completion at the end of
2016
• Critical design review passed in September 2011 • Infrastructure
roll-out during 2011-2012 includes:
– Road network – Electrical and fibre reticulation (including
webcams and weather stations) – Extensions to Dish Assembly Shed –
New Pedestal Integration building – Karoo Array Processor building
– Power Facility – Klerefontein workshops – Landing strip –
Construction camps – MeerKAT antenna foundations
• Provision of Grid power for MeerKAT – 33kV power line
construction nearing completion (snag listing phase) – Tender for
civil works for upgrade to Karoo substation approved - Civil works
expected to take 11
months because of long-lead items – Tender for procurement of 2 x
5MVA transformers approved in February 2011 - 12 month lead items –
Once Karoo substation has been upgraded, power line will be
switched over from 22kV to 33kV
MeerKAT infrastructure
• Provision of data connectivity for MeerKAT Construction of 10Gbps
long-haul fibre link for MeerKAT completed, telescope team
already utilizing new 10Gbps link 10Mbps interim link operational
since February 2011 from the site to Cape Town (To
decide whether to retain Telkom 10Mbps link as back-up for CAM) •
The fibre network will interface to the WACS (West African Cable
System)
submarine cable from Cape Town to Europe with a capacity of 5.12
Tbit/s (10/100 Gbit/s reserved for MeerKAT/SKA)
• Redundancy will be provided through the East Coast cable system
such as SEACOM, EASY/SAFE cables
Data link - to site & the world
• On-site facility that houses the centralized telescope equipment
• From the Array Processor, data is sent via the long haul optic
fibre to the
Control Centre in Cape Town • Karoo Array Processor Building
includes:
The Building RFI Screening which includes full RFI-shielding of the
telescope equipment, long-haul fibre
equipment and Maser room, workshop/lab and control room Telescope
Equipment Long-haul Fibre Equipment Cooling and Ventilation System
Power System Fire Detection and Fire Fighting System Access Control
and Security System
Karoo Array Processor Building
Karoo Array Processor Building
KAPB and Power facility
• Power Facility will be the central power hub: Existing overhead
line to site re-routed to incomer switch panel
(allowance made for 33kV & 22kV) • Uninterrupted power via
Diesel Rotary UPS to: MeerKAT Antenna system @ 22kV Site Complex,
incl. KAPB @ 400V Existing KAT7 antenna system @ 22kV Existing
PAPER antenna system (via KAT7)
• Modular design - Diesel Rotary UPS units added as demand
increases 2.5 MVA available for MeerKAT, KAT-7, PAPER 5 MVA final
capacity (SKA Phase 1?)
• Each rotary UPS unit provided with own day tank (1,000 liters) –
fills up from external tank, pumps controlled by UPS
Power facility
MeerKAT telescope
34
• International RFP in 2009 (21 major proposals received) • All
proposals closely related to SKA science, all use unique MeerKAT
features • Adjudication September 2010 (international panel)
– 2 Priority 1 surveys: • Study of the origin and evolution of
galaxies. • Study of Einstein’s theory of gravity and fundamental
physics. • Same as the two SKA Phase-1 science drivers.
• 8 Priority 2 surveys and other “unsuccessful” proposals –
Excellent science that uses unique features of MeerKAT – Aspects of
other surveys considered for smaller time allocations
• Work session of PIs in Cape Town in April 2011
Phase 1 (current planning)
Frequency bands (GHz) 1-1.75 0.58 – 1.015
8-14.5
MeerKAT Frequency, Ae/Tsys
35
“Sensitivity is king, but Dynamic Range or its proxies are the
dominant queens”
• Progress on all aspects of the telescope good PDR completed in
July, detailed design now under way
• Antennas: Request for Information (RFI) for the antenna
structures has been issued and responses received
• Will be followed by a Request for Proposals (RFP) planned for 31
October 2011
• Major milestones: MeerKAT Antenna Contract awarded: March 2012
1st MeerKAT Antenna installed: Oct 2013 1st MeerKAT Antenna
qualification completed: June 2014 Array Release 1 (5 antennas):
Dec 2014 Array Release 2 (approx 32 antennas): Dec 2015 MeerKAT
Antenna Construction completed: Dec 2016
Overall progress, antenna structures
Optics – evolution towards MeerKAT Optics Dprojected Fmain refl.
F/D RMS
1 XDM Prime-focus 15 7.5 m 0.50 2 mm 2 KAT-7 Prime-focus 12 4.56 m
0.38 1 mm 3 MeerKAT Offset-Gregorian 13.5 TBD TBD ≤ 1 mm
38
Offset Gregorian Optics • Thinking documented [ EA-MK-WP-0008 ] •
Draft A released in time for MeerKAT PDR July 2011, more work
under way • Next step: Careful review, taking into account
future-proofing
Multiple Receivers
• MeerKAT will have positions for 4 receivers
• All operational, all the time • Future FPA possible
• GM • Single He-compressor (air-cooled), above azimuth rotator •
Single vacuum pump, on sub-reflector boom • Compressor & vacuum
pump shared amongst three receivers Maximum sensitivity
MeerKAT Cooling Decision
Specification started Definition of expected volumes and masses for
all receivers
• Cryostat Detail design of 1st cryostat prototype complete
Manufacturing of almost all of the cryostat prototype is
complete, integration started
44
LNA test setup • Integration of hermetic coax feed-throughs • Test
setup is in final integration and test phase • Busy characterising
and calibrating the RF losses • Busy integrating and testing the
control software • Should be possible to do automatic and
repeatable
LNA measurements in the October 2011.
LNA test setup, receiver C&M unit
Receiver Control and Monitoring Unit (RCMU) • Software Requirement
Specification V1 released • Design and layout of 1st prototype
electronics completed, ready for
manufacturing. Includes prototype circuits for driving the GM
stepper motor as well as additional PID control circuits for
experimentation.
RCMU ARM Module
45
• Parts have been procured and received • Software development for
RCMU:
Software development platform completed, can build custom U-Boot
and linux images
Demonstrated complete path where sensor values are requested via
KATCP on development boards.
Busy implementing rest of the functionality as specified in the SRS
• 2nd Stage RF amplification
Prototype design completed, ready for manufacturing. Test circuits
designed for testing and characterising specific RF
components.
Will be used to build accurate models and for selecting the best
components from the available selection.
RCMU FPGA Module
Top Bottom
Top Bottom
• Progress in a nutshell: Digitiser – advanced Correlator – early
stages TFR – TBD
• Installed a 16-element correlator with added functionality in the
Karoo and duplicated the system in the lab (Cape Town) for testing
–final correlator modes (spectral line mode and tied array beam
forming) will be implemented by year-end in line with the vision of
achieving KAT-7 engineering completion and establishment of an
operational baseline by end of 2011. • First ROACH2 board delivered
to CT
Testing progressing well
Digital backend
• Remote operations functionality successfully implemented •
Integrated the KAT-7 correlator with the CAM system • The C&M
room in CT (remote) has been set up and is now fully functional • A
lab test to simulate C&M for 64 antennas completed
• Successfully ran the system with 64 simulated dishes across 4
servers (2 proxies, 1 headnode and 1 simulators)
• No major bottlenecks identified (other than expected e.g. KatGUI
real estate) • While there remains a lot of work to get to a final
system for MeerKAT the test proved that the
current concept will scale to 64 antennas and that the team is on
the right track and making the right key decisions as far as the
control system is concerned.
Computing
• collaborative work with several institutions • working with NRAO
on the development of the CASA processing package,
with particular emphasis on high-performance computing systems to
deal with the vast datasets produced by the EVLA and MeerKAT.
• Collaborative work underway with ASTRON (Netherlands) in order to
accurately model and understand the effect of beam shapes in high
dynamic-range imaging.
• Work focused on MeerKAT beams, but also has wider applicability,
particularly for the SKA.
• Partnership with Intel South Africa Corporation to evaluate the
highest Intel technologies for processing the enormous data rates
produced by radio telescopes.
• Quarterly meetings are held with IBM South Africa and the IBM
Watson Research Centre to track the latest applicable computing
technologies.
In conclusion..
Thank you!
51 www.ska
aloots@ska
MeerKAT UpdateManchester WP2 meeting, 20 October 2011Anita Loots
(Associate Director: SKA SA)Willem Esterhuyse (Project Manager,
MeerKAT)Tracy Cheetham (Project Manager, MeerKAT Infrastructure)in
the audience:Thomas KuselLJ du ToitIzak Theron T.L.
VenkatasubramaniBruce Wallace
Slide Number 2
Slide Number 3