An Integrated Programme of Technology for the Next Generation of Astronomical Instrumentation

在过去的75年里，射电天文学在天体物理学和宇宙学方面发挥了领先的发现作用。在四个不同的场合，诺贝尔奖被授予射电天文学家。技术创新一直是这一成功的核心。新的探测器设备、创新的仪器设计及其组合的不断发展，产生了能够对天空进行全景多频观测以及对单个物体进行非常精确测量的仪器。现在需要越来越大的规模、复杂性和技术复杂性的接收器系统，越来越多的观测将在偏远的沙漠地点、极高海拔地点(包括气球)和太空中进行。只有在了解了核心设备和子系统的物理和特性之后，才能认真设计明天的世界领先仪器。这是该提案的基础。要想取得领先地位，重要的是要有预见性和主动性。因此，一支世界领先的技术团队必须具有创新性、多才多艺，并与具有互补人才的外部合作伙伴自由合作。几乎没有几家机构准备好成为先锋，但曼彻斯特就是其中之一-因此，它可以在确保英国天文学家接触到下一代尖端仪器方面发挥主导作用。在长波长方面，占主导地位的望远镜将是中国的500米口径球面望远镜(曼彻斯特与该望远镜有一个联合研发计划)，其次是平方公里阵列。我们对后者的回应是组建SKADS团队(牛津和剑桥作为英国合作伙伴，ASTRON作为主要欧洲合作伙伴)，作为射电天文学家、无线电工程师和半导体设备专家的多学科伙伴关系。在厘米至亚毫米波长，将需要多种仪器，因此这项提议涉及一项协调一致的技术研发方案，既包括天文动力良好类型的接收器阵列的总体设计，也包括生产和测试交付这些接收器所需的设备和分系统。将基础研究与更广泛的经济联系起来，现在是STFC职权范围的一个组成部分。我们赞同这种精神，因为工业联系不仅可以带来新的想法和专业知识，还可以从知识转让、许可和衍生产品中释放资金，从而使纯科学计划受益。

Over the last 75 years, radio astronomy has played a leading discovery role in astrophysics and cosmology. On four separate occasions the Nobel Prize has been awarded to radio astronomers. Innovations in technology have been central to this success. The continuous development of novel detector devices, innovative instrument design and their combination has produced instruments capable of panoramic multi-frequency views of the sky and also of very precise measurements of individual objects. Receiver systems of ever-greater scale, complexity and technical sophistication are now demanded and observations will increasingly be carried out on remote desert sites, on very high altitude sites (including balloons) and in space. The world-leading instruments of tomorrow can only be designed in earnest once the physics and characteristics of core devices and sub-systems have been understood. This is the basis of the proposal. To take a lead it is important to anticipate and be proactive. A world-leading technology team must therefore be innovative, multi-skilled and cooperate freely with external partners with complementary talents. There are few institutions well-poised to be in the vanguard, but Manchester is one-as such it can play a leading role in ensuring UK astronomers' access to the next generation of cutting-edge instrumentation. At long wavelengths the dominant telescopes will be Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope in China (with which Manchester has a joint R&D programme) followed by the Square Kilometre Array. Our response for the latter has been to assemble the SKADS team (with Oxford and Cambridge as UK partners and ASTRON as the principal European partner) as a multidisciplinary partnership of radio astronomers, radio engineers and semiconductor device experts. At cm- to sub-mm wavelengths, a multiplicity of instruments will be required and so this proposal involves a coherent technology R&D programme covering both the overall design of astronomically well-motivated types of receiver array, together with the production and testing of devices and sub-systems required to deliver them. The linkage of basic research with the wider economy is now an integral part of the remit of STFC. We share this ethos since industrial links can not only bring in new ideas and expertise but also release funds from knowledge transfer, licensing and spin-offs which can benefit the pure science programme.