Michael, The U.S. has been a key player in the SKA since day 1. This is my field (radio astronomy) and I know a lot of Americans involved in working toward a SKA. The hope is to get funded by the Search For Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and by the National Science Foundation. Multi-billionair Paul Allen has been a major supporter, and the prototype Allen Telescope Array is already under construction. NASA, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory are all working on this technology.
All the Americans involved that I know are scientists like me. We all measure wavelengths in micrometers, millimeters, and centimeters. We design circuits in micrometers. We measure antennas in meters. I have not seen anyone in this field measuring antennas or antenna area in FFU. John On Monday 17 November 2003 15:30, Michael Ossipov wrote: > This is nice news! > > But to be realistic, did you take a look at the participants list? > almost metric countries, who really thinks they would let someone impose > non-metric on them?! > > bye > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Mighty Chimp > To: U.S. Metric Association > Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 12:08 AM > Subject: [USMA:27613] square kilometre array > > > Australia is contributing to two next generation radio telescopes: the > Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR). The SKA > will have a collecting area of one square kilometre making it 100 times > more sensitive than the current best instruments. It will operate at > centimetre wavelengths and may be operational in 2015. LOFAR, a more > immediate project, will be about one tenth the size of the SKA. It will > work at metre wavelengths and may be operational as soon as 2008. These new > telescopes are so ambitious that international collaboration is mandatory > in their design, construction and operation. > > http://www.atnf.csiro.au/projects/ska/
