ABSTRACT

It is not possible to write about the town of Carnarvon without mentioning the presence of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Nonetheless, it can safely be said that the government’s decision to join an international ‘big science’ collaboration to build the world’s largest ever radio telescope – and to build South Africa’s share in the vicinity of Carnarvon – had nothing to do with the interests of the town, its residents, and their schools. On a global scale, the SKA began as a series of informal gatherings of international astronomers in the early 1990s, interested in building a large-scale array of radio telescopes to investigate the far depths of the universe and explore its origins. On a national scale, South Africa’s decision to participate in this enormously costly project and then to bid for a leading role in hosting the telescope array in 2003 was in part the result of complex policy jockeying within the new post-apartheid government.