The document discusses several large radio astronomy and gamma-ray astronomy projects in Southern Africa including H.E.S.S., the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the African Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network (AVN), and the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). It notes that Namibia has been selected to host 4 satellite sites for SKA and proposes Namibia as a host site for CTA in Southern Africa. It outlines the infrastructure and resources needed for these projects and emphasizes that Namibia must develop its human and technical capacity in astronomy to fully capitalize on and contribute to these major scientific endeavors.

1. R. Steenkamp & M. Backes (& I.D. Davids)

2. H.E.S.S. Phases I & II
– High Energy Stereoscopic System
– fait accompli
SKA
– Square Kilometre Array
– will happen in Southern Africa
– Namibia will have 4 satellite sites

3. H.E.S.S. (in operation)
 H.E.S.S. Phase I
 1996 – Letter of Intent
 2000 – Construction starts
 2002 – Operations start
 2004 – Inauguration of full Phase I array (28 Spetember)
 2006 – Descartes prize, ranked 10th most influential observatory in
the world
 2010 – Rossi prize
 H.E.S.S. Phase II
 2012 – Inauguration of Phase II (28 September)
 Largest Cherenkov telescope in the world

4. SKA (will happen)
 1991: Concept
 1993: International working group created
 2008: PrepSKA commences
 2012:
 KAT-7 (7x12m) operational – science programme starts
 25 May – jointly awarded to Southern Africa & Australia
 2015—2016: MeerKAT (64x13.5m) operational
 2016-2019: SKA Phase 1 construction
 2020: SKA Phase 1 complete (300 million Euro)
 2024: SKA Phase 2 complete (1.5 billion Euro)
 2022: SKA Phase 3 …

5. SKA in Namibia
 Namibia has the most SKA satellite sites of any of the
participating countries other than South Africa
 4 sites identified in radio quiet regions of Namibia
 20—40 radio telescopes per site
 Construction will have to start in 2016
Site Longitude Latitude
Nam-0 18.648 -25.785
Nam-1 16.043 -22.183
Nam-2 17.800 -19.600
Nam-4 13.186 -23.271

6. Siting SKA
• H.E.S.S.
(farm Goellschau)
• Identified SKA sites

7. CTA South
– Cherenkov Telescope Array (Southern Hemisphere)
AVN
– African VLBI Network
(VLBI = Very Long Baseline Interferometry)
SKA IS COMING…

8. AVN a precursor to SKA
 Analogous to other VLBI networks in the world:
 EuropeanVLBI Network (EVN), Australia Telkescope Long Baseline
Array (AT-LBA), Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), etc
 One 25—32 metre radio telescope needed per country
 Conversion of existing redundant antennas:
 Ghana, Kenya, Zambia
 Conversion/New Build?
 Madagascar
 New Builds required (25 metre entry level):
 Mauritius, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique

9. New Build for Namibia?
 25—32 m
diameter
 25 m entry into
VLBI work
 32 m optimal but
expensive
 Cost scales as
(surface area)2.6

10. Namibian Radio Telescope site
 Entry level 25 metre new build
 Site at:
 SKA Nam-1 (shared site development – AVN & SKA)
 H.E.S.S./Secondary CTA site (existing infrastructure to be expanded
– possible shared site development)
 Primary CTA site (shared site development – AVN & CTA)
 Infrastructure:
 10 Gb/s data link
 Buried power feeder
 Water
 Access road

11. Siting AVN
• H.E.S.S.
(farm Goellschau)
• Identified SKA sites
• Proposed primary CTA site
(farm Aar)
• Possible Namibian AVN
telescope site(s)???

12. CTA partners in Southern Africa

13. The CTA Consortion
>1050 academics spread over 27 countries!

14. CTA South – the Namibian bid
 CTA – North & South (200 million Euro)
 CTA North (2 types of telescopes – 19 in total)
 4 LSTs, 15 MSTs (1 km2) (cost: 1/3 of total)
 Contenders: USA, Mexico, Canaries
 CTA South (4 types of telescopes – 135 in total)
 4 LSTs, 25 MSTs, 70 SSTs, 36 SCTs (10 km2) (cost: 2/3 of total)
 Contenders: Namibia, Argentina, Chile
 Namibia proposed 2 sites:
 Primary: small plateau on Farm Aar near Aus
 Secondary: HESS site on Farm Goellschau

16. Large Scale Telescopes
 23 m diameter
 400 m2 surface area
 Lowest energy
observations
 < 200 GeV
 4 LSTs per site

17. Medium Scale Telescopes
 12 m diameter
 100 m2 surface area
 Medium range energy
observations
 100 GeV – 10 TeV
 25 MSTs on Southern site
 16 MSTs in Northern site

18.  4.3 m diameter
 Highers energy
observations
 > 10 TeV
 70 SSTs on Southern site
only

19. Medium Sized Dual-Mirror
telescopes
 9.7 m diameter
 50 m2
 Adding 36 SCTs
contributed by USA to
the CTA South to extend
the MST array

20. Why Namibia for
CTA South?
• Offers some of the darkest
cloud-free skies with the least
amount of light pollution in
Southern Africa
• Established and sophisticated
power & telecommunications
infrastructure
• Established host for large
science projects, e.g. H.E.S.S.
• Political stability
• Multi-wavelength
opportunities & synergies with
SKA, AVN & SALT
• If successful, Southern Africa
will host the two most powerful
telescopes of its kind in the
world (CTA & SKA)

21. Site Requirements for CTA
 1 Gb/s data link (SEACOM+Xnet??)
 4 MW of power (NamPower)
 Water supply (Ministry of Works borehole)
 Access road
 Good logistics
 10 km2 of rather flat surface > 1500 m a.s.l.
 Minimum cloud cover & dark skies
 Low risk
 …

22. Siting CTA
• H.E.S.S.
(farm Goellschau)
• Identified SKA sites
• Proposed primary CTA site
(farm Aar)
• Proposed secondary CTA site
(farm Goellschau)

23. Best site in Namibia for CTA South
Aar
HESS
Capital
with
Airport
(40km)
Harbour
(120km)
&
Airport
(112km)
Railway
Station

24. Site Location
Aar (Aar-west)
(16.4530ºE, -26.691ºS)
(1633±13) m asl
Implantation of CTA array

25. Infrastructure (Electricity)
Electricity (Aar):
• Two 132kV lines passing
the farm Aar.
• The closes substation
just north of Aus,
connecting it with a 33 kV
line
• A new power line, from
Aus to farm Aar would
have to be built.
• Rough estimate: N$13 million

26. Infrastructure (Water)
Water:
• Aar:
• Boreholes on Farm Kubub (35 m3/hour)  sufficient water available
• needs to be pumped up to the plateau & stored in reservoir

27. Quality of the Namibian Site(s)

28. CTA Timeline
 CTA-PP: 2010—2013 (FP7 funded - UNAM a signatory)
 Deadline for input: 30June 2013
 Site visits by independent Site Selection Committee
(SSC): 19—28 August 2013
 Recommendations from SSC by Q4 2013
 Site Decision: 19/20 December 2013
 2014/15: Negotiation & signature of detailed site
agreements
 2015/16: comencement of preparations & construction
 Construction phase: 4—5 years after start

29. CTA Resource Board
 Meeting attended by highest level official possible in
government/funding agencies of member counries…
 Namibia & South Africa signatories of the CTA
Declaration of Intent (DoI)
 Argentinian delegation headed by a Deputy Minister
of Science & Technology
 South African delegation headed by Prof. Nithya
Chetty, Group Executive: Astronomy at the NRF
 Namibian delegation headed in the past by Mr Alfred
van Kent, Director of the DRST at the MoE…

30. CTA-RB: Namibian Delegation
 The Future delegation to the CTA Resource Board
should be either the
 CEO of the NCRST
or
 A Director/Deputy Director of the NCRST tasked with
Astronomy &/ Space Science

31. How to get the maximum advantage for Namibia from
H.E.S.S., SKA/AVN & CTA?

32. H.E.S.S. (historical analysis)
 H.E.S.S. was not sufficiently utilised for capacity
building. WHY?
 Lack of minimal resources to participate in H.E.S.S.
 Powers-that-be misunderstanding the nature of international
collaborations
 Lack of candidates to be trained
 MSc entry level required – level problem
 No undergraduate scholarships
 Lack of manpower within Namibia:
 Astrophysicists (to participate in science programmes)
 Engineers (to participate in instrument design & development)
 Only one astrophysicist trained (Isak D. Davids)
 Too few by an order of magnitude

33. A lesson from SA & SKA
 When SA started to bid for SKA, it had only 3 radio
astronomers and no radio telescope engineers
 NRF – created undergraduate and graduate
scholarships for
 Engineers specialising in radio telescope technology
 Radio astronomers
 Started to develop technology for
 KAT-7 MeerKAT SKA at engineering level
 Manpower was developed for a successful SKA bid
 SUCCESS!!!

34. Roadmap for Namibia I
 Create few undergraduate (& graduate) scholarships
ASAP for
 Instrument scientists & radio telescope engineers
 Astrophysicists (Radio – & High Energy –)
 Create two fully resourced NRF-like research chairs
around which a centre of excellence can be established
in the fields of
 Radio Astronomy
 High Energy Astrophysics
 Create a Astronomy/Space Science Group/Division in
the NCRST to help spearhead efforts

35. Roadmap for Namibia II
 Set up post-doctoral programme to attract young
researchers from abroad to help establish research
groups
 Help facilitate the construction of a radio telescope for
the Namibian AVN telescope
 Utilise standing agreements to train students in
specialised courses in SA (HartRAO, NASSP) to have
Namibians available to run the SKA satellite stations
and participate in SKA/AVN science
 Become actively involved in technology design &
creation

36. Summary & Conclusion
 Namibia (and Southern Africa) is now for the very first
time in a position to take advantage of BIG SCIENCE:
 SKA will be the largest telescope system ever built and
one of the biggest science projects in history.
 (1.5 billion Euro ~ 18 billion NAD/ZAR project)
 CTA will be the largest gamma-ray observatory in the
world
 (200 million Euro ~ 2.4 billion NAD/ZAR project)
 SKA/AVN & CTA present unique opportunities that
must be taken advantage of and exploited for the
benefit of Namibia