am not sure re-analysis is that important myself, but it looks like the SKA will be used in a pretty traditional way, with groups of astronomers applying to do

am not sure re-analysis is that important myself, but it looks like the SKA will be used in a pretty traditional way, with groups of astronomers applying to do particular observations. that means that the processing of data will likely be different for each group, and will probably take place over time (some poor grad student will likely spend most of their thesis - several years - on it). the other approach - taken with something like the SDSS - is to make a telescope for just one task (typically a survey). then you can process the data and throw it away. i am pretty sure that is what SDSS did, and what, say, the LSST will probably do too (if it ever gets finished). the advantage of the first approach is that you are much more flexible, which means more likelihood of making a big discovery (particularly when, as with this telescope, collecting area is larger than ever before, which means that you can see fainter and further back in time, making it ideal to study isolated, unusual objects - in contrast, survey telescopes make different technical compromises so that they cover a wider field of view), and also more chances to make and exploit upgrades over time. the downside is dealing with issues like this (another issue is data transport - traditionally you go to a telescope and then take the data home with you; i imagine we're now getting to the point where instead you will process data local to the data storage). disclaimer: i was an optical astronomer, not radio, and that was years ago, so this may already be old news / incorrect in details. but the general idea should be ok. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_Kilometre_Array http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_Kilometre_Array http://www.sdss.org/ http://www.sdss.org/ http://www.lsst.org/lsst/ http://www.lsst.org/lsst/ ps often telescopes do make data public after a certain time. but the idea is not so much to allow reanalysis as to make sure the people who originally took the data reduce and publish it. it's easy to postpone that kind of work, but the idea that someone else might do it and publish first is quite a motivator.