Germany reaffirms commitment to SKAO as major contract signed
Mainz-based OHB Digital Connect will supply 86 highly sensitive receivers for the SKA-Mid radio telescope, currently under construction in South Africa’s Northern Cape. The €10.7m contract is the first to be awarded to Germany since it joined the Observatory just under a year ago.
The receivers will detect radio signals in the frequency range known as Band 5, from 4.6 to 15.4 GHz, currently the highest frequencies SKA-Mid will observe. They will sit alongside receivers sensitive to lower frequencies which are being developed in Sweden and South Africa.
"The collaboration between SKAO and OHB Digital Connect strengthens the technological sovereignty and innovative power of Germany and Europe. I am delighted that both the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn and the new German Center for Astrophysics in Görlitz are able to contribute their considerable expertise here. This is a great example that uses several levers of the German Hightech Agenda,“ said German Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space Dorothee Bär.
The contract signing ceremony took place on the sidelines of the launch of Germany’s ‘Hightech agenda Deutschland’, attended by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and several cabinet ministers at the EUREF Campus in Berlin.
“It’s a great pleasure to celebrate this significant SKAO construction contract for German industry during the launch of the national high-tech agenda, and in the presence of Minister Bär,” said Dr Simon Berry, SKAO Deputy Director-General.
“It reinforces not only the expertise that Germany has in radio astronomy technology, which is renowned, but also how membership of the SKAO enables national industry to stay at the cutting edge by developing the next-generation technologies which are essential for our telescopes.”
Radio telescope receivers convert the electromagnetic waves collected by the antennas into a usable electrical signal. The SKAO has stringent performance and functional requirements for its receivers, including the need to be electronically “low noise” so as not to pollute the faint astronomical signals being observed.
The contract was signed by representatives from the SKAO and OHB Digital Connect, alongside leaders from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Radio astronomy (MPIfR) - experts in developing receivers for radio astronomy - and the German Centre for Astrophysics (DZA),which are supporting the delivery of the Band 5 contract.
“The MPIfR has been involved in the SKA project since its inception, and it is deeply gratifying to see the telescope being realised, thanks in no small part to the expertise of the institute,” said Director Prof. Michael Kramer, who is also Germany’s representative on the SKAO Council.
OHB Digital Connect previously developed the antennas for MeerKAT+, the extension of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory’s MeerKAT radio telescope, which will be incorporated into the SKA-Mid array.
“This project is another important milestone for us as we expand our position as a leading system provider for ground-based astronomy and strengthen our long-standing partnerships with the scientific community," said Dennis Winkelmann, Managing Director OHB Digital Connect.
“We are proud to contribute to this groundbreaking project and are grateful for the trust placed in us by the SKAO.”