The SKA design has been an ongoing process for many years, with design studies from participating institutions all feeding in to making the SKA a truly exceptional instrument. The SKA Organisation first issued a Baseline Design document in early 2013 and then a Request for Proposals in the middle of March 2013, inviting research organisations and industry to participate in the work towards a final detailed design of the SKA telescope.

As stated at that time, the purpose of the design activities is to prepare the SKA project at element level to proceed with the construction of the first phase of the SKA telescope (SKA1). Consortia, gathering experts from all over the world have been formed to oversee and work on these “Work Packages” and the SKA Organisation have now engaged with a wide range of industrial, engineering and scientific organisations all over the world, which will cover all of the components required to make the SKA a reality. Details on these packages and the consortia working on them can be found in this section of the website, of by clicking the links below directly.

• Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV)
• Central Signal Processor (CSP)
• Dish (DSH)
• Infrastructure Australia and Africa (INFRA AU/INFRA SA)
• Low-Frequency Aperture Array (LFAA)
• Mid-Frequency Aperture Array (MFAA)
• Signal and Data Transport (SaDT)
• Science Data Processor (SDP)
• Telescope Manager (TM)
• Wideband Single Pixel Feeds (WBSPF)

The list of partners is vast and can be seen all over this map. Zoom in and click on each partner organisation to see what part or parts of the SKA jigsaw they will be working on, and find out more about each partner and their own background. The sub sections within this part of the SKA website, break down to each of the core components in the SKA design, and again highlight the individual partners in more detail.

Baseline Design document for SKA1 is available here