The SKA's the limit if young Australians will only set their sights on the sciences

The Square Kilometre Array, the world's largest telescope, connects Australian research, science and industry - crucial for forging a path to economic prosperity

Last week I visited the Murchison Radio-astronomy observatory in regional Western Australia, the future Australian home of the world's largest telescope, the Square Kilometre Array or SKA. As a mechanical engineer I was in awe of the scale and vision of the project.

It's a great example of "moon shot thinking". In 1961 the US president John Kennedy said he was going to put a man on the moon, but he had no idea how to do it. With the SKA we're building the world's largest telescope with no real idea of what we'll find. The SKA will comprise thousands of antennas that capture radio waves emitted from stars, galaxies, supernovae and black holes. Some of the radio waves will come from objects that are so far away they have since disintegrated. It will effectively provide us with a 3D Google map of the universe.