The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Observatory target for its Mid Telescope science availability is high (§2). It emphasises quality of delivery and can drive high operating & maintenance cost. There is substantial evidence that indicates that the physical well-being of any asset and the financial cost to keep such an asset in its operational well-being are interrelated, and keeping any asset operating efficiently requires efficient and cost-effective maintenance. This paper describes the observatory acquisition and operations establishment approach for realising SKA Observatory Mid Telescope science availability at optimised cost. It shares interim results, challenges and focus areas for SKA-Mid Telescope Construction and Operations establishment. It provides insight in SKA engineering operations collaboration with science operations, the SKA-Mid Acquisition Project, Mission Assurance, Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) and Health, Safety, Security and Environmental (HSSE) Management towards this objective.
The steady state operational availability and resources modelled for Square Kilometre Array (SKA) assume that necessary engineering operations systems are in place and can be effectively managed. The trend however is for this state to be reached only many years after Telescope commissioning. Implementation gaps in engineering operations cost working time and can be particularly hard to resolve during operations. The pre-cursor histories and lessons learned offer knowledge and opportunity to mitigate. The paper explores challenges and opportunities for SKA engineering operations establishment. It discusses focus areas for early effort to build on the achievements and improve on challenges experienced by pre-cursor Telescopes.
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an ambitious project to build the world's largest radio observatory. The Observatory will construct two telescopes: a low-frequency array (50-350 MHz) in Australia and a mid-frequency array (0:35 - 15 GHz) in South Africa. The Global Headquarters for the SKA is located at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK. Once in steady-state operations, the SKA will have one of the largest data rates of any research infrastructure in the world. This paper describes the operational model for the SKA and the challenges faced by its globally distributed operations. The paper presents the modelling undertaken to better understand the workforce required to support the engineering operations and maintenance of the telescopes, and how the Observatory will interact and interface with a global network of SKA Regional Centres to support its scientific users.
The availability requirement for the SKA telescopes will have a major impact on the design, capital and operating costs. The design-for-reliability, maintainability, maintenance planning and performance expectations should be well balanced. Engineering analysis indicates that the SKA telescopes should have an inherent availability of 99% and both telescopes are required to have an operational availability of at least 95%. This paper discusses the availability and support challenges of building and operating two telescopes in Australia and South Africa. It describes the approach to the critical design review of the system, with a special focus on simulation modeling and sensitivity analysis. It also discusses the use of failure data from the precursor telescopes and gives technical insight into the development of a digital twin for decision making. .
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