Building Educational Programs for the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder

摘要

The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) will be an array of 36 antennas in Western Australia, each 12-m in diameter, and is due for opera-tion in 2013. With a large instantaneous field-of-view ASKAP will survey the whole sky faster than existing radio telescopes, producing massive data sets. Government funding for ASKAP was contingent on it being available for education purposes, providing an exciting opportunity to develop innovative education projects for schools and citizen science. Building on the PULSE@Parkes program we plan to have a range of activities and resources, providing scope for student investigations. Challenges and educational opportunities are discussed.