Timeline and Funding
The SKA was originally conceived in the early 1990s with an international working group set up in 1994. This led to the signing of the first Memorandum of Agreement in 2000. Considerable early development work then followed. This culminated in the commencement of PrepSKA in 2008 leading to a full SKA design in 2012. Construction of Phase 1 will take place from 2016 to 2019 providing an operational array capable of carrying out the first science. Phase 2 will then follow for completion in 2024 providing full sensitivity for frequencies up to 10 GHz.
The SKA is projected to cost €1.5 billion for phases 1 and 2 completing in 2024, this includes €300 million for Phase 1 completing 2019. The funding will come from many international funding agencies. The SKA and the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) are the two flagship facilities for ground-based astronomy in the future. They are equal high priority projects in the ASTRONET roadmap for European astronomy.
Currently Australia, China, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK have signed an agreement to create and provide funding for the SKA Organisation.
Read more about this topic: Square Kilometre Array