New HIRAX telescope makes South Africa an important radio astronomy hub

Time has come for South Africa to be called the planet’s one of the vital radio astronomy hubs due to its role as co-host of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). In August this year, the team led by Heinrich Bauermeister, the MMS Director installed the MMS dish. It has the capability to tilt in an elevation of 30 degrees either side of zenith.

The University of KwaZulu-Natal-led the Hydrogen and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX) deployed two new prototype telescope dish designs, one aluminium and the other fibreglass, at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) Hartebeesthoek in Gauteng.

MMS Technology designed and manufactured the fibreglass dish in South Africa’s Pretoria. The company further designed and manufactured the aluminium dish in a partnership with NJV Consulting and Rebcon in Durban. Funding for the HIRAX prototype dishes was provided by the UKZN and the Department of Science and Innovation through the National Research Foundation, as reported by Space in Africa.

HIRAX is one step closer to the installation of the full 1024-dish array and the collaboration between the HIRAX project, manufacturing firms and local engineers created the milestone. The telescope is expected to enhance the research in the evolution of dark energy through hydrogen intensity mapping, and research on transient radio sources such as fast radio bursts (FRBs) and pulsars. Space scientists consider dark energy as a mysterious force in the universe that acts against the gravity to create an accelerated expansion of the universe.

One the project is accomplished, HIRAX is highly expected to instrument and analyse the two new prototype dishes in the next few months to work on the final necessities for an open tender for the first 256 dishes to be installed at the HIRAX main site in the Karoo.

“In order to deliver high-precision science, HIRAX has stringent specifications that require custom-built telescope dishes. The two new dishes from MMS and Rebcon represent a significant milestone toward achieving HIRAX’s goals, and it will be crucial for informing the final instrument design,” HIRAX Instrumentation Lead and Professor at McGill University and Fractional Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Cynthia Chiang said.