Rudd Fights Hard For 'global Icon' Telescope

The Age

Tuesday April 1, 2008

Michelle Grattan

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd is lobbying hard for Australia to become the site of a revolutionary $2.6 billion radio telescope.

Described as a future global icon for science, the telescope would probe unknown secrets of the universe.

The giant Square Kilometre Array telescope will have about 50 times the sensitivity and 10,000 times the survey speed of present radio telescopes.

Australia and South Africa are competing for it.

Mr Rudd said it was a huge piece of technology that would "turbo-charge science" in Australia.

He raised Australia's claim when he met US Vice-President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week.

The Government was taking the matter seriously, Mr Rudd said, and was talking to New Zealand about joining in the project.

"The wider the geographical span the better capture of information," he said at a news conference, surrounded by high-flyer expats, including, Andrew Thomas, Australia's first astronaut.

Dr Thomas said Australia was a prime contender for several reasons.

It had the economic wherewithal to do the project, and it possessed the infrastructure needed to run it.

"More than anything else, it has got a high degree of political stability that you need for running a long-term project like that," he said.

© 2008 The Age

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