Cork’s very own NSC may soon utilise its facilities to aid in the search for extraterrestrial life, it has emerged today.
The complex also hopes to win a number of contracts that will enable its workforce to expand from 14 to about 65 over the next three years.
The 32mts-wide antennae system, sited at NSC’s Elfordstown Earthstation, near Midleton, Co Cork, was built in 1984. Its original purpose was the transmission of transatlantic telephone calls from Europe to the US, but it was decomissioned in the mid-1990s as underground cables negated the need for its use.
Other similar facilities around the world have now been commissioned again to be used in space exploration, and it is hoped that the USC’s antenna array will be utilised for similar space missions.