Seti and the one square kilometre radio telescope

Future international collaborations could lead to a new generation of radio telescopes with 10-100 times the performance of the most powerful telescopes existing today. There is already a demand for this from both radioastronomy and SETI communities. The scientific arguments are in place and they are very similar for both disciplines. URSI and IAU Working Groups have been set up recently to consider the problems. Development and construction could be achieved by 2005. The collecting area being considered is of the order of a square kilometre. This area would be spread over tens of kilometres to give a suitable high resolution. The preferred frequency range is from 200 to 5000 MHz. Construction cost would probably be of the order of a few $100 m. This proposal will be discussed in the context of the need for exponential growth (Livingston curves) for major scientific disciplines to survive. The growth is fed by a series of technological advances. This next generation telescope will undoubtedly require the development of new and innovative technologies in areas such as antennas, amplifiers, interference control, signal transport and data processing. (C) 1995 International Astronautical Federation. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.