STELLENBOSCH, SOUTH AFRICA – South African engineers and researchers working at Stellenbosch University are ready to send their own B.A.L.L.S., a prototype array of radio telescopes known as Bounced African Low Lunar Spheres, to China to test its capability for an important lunar mission.
The three-sphere radio telescope array was created to work on the Moon’s far side and detect low-frequency signals from outer space, which are protected from radio waves emitted by the planet. It will be launched on board China’s Chang’e-8 mission, which will touch down near the Moon’s south pole around 2029.
“Going to the Moon gives you a very quiet environment… shielded from radio interference from the Earth,” said Dr Arno Barnard, a professor of electrical engineering from Stellenbosch University. He emphasised that it is important to develop local space technologies to reduce dependency on foreign supply chains.
By working together across continents, the Africa2Moon team was able to reduce costs for their project by more than 90 per cent, lowering the price tag of a $120 million project to under $1 million. “It shows that we can surmount all these barriers to entry because of the innovation and the spirit of Africans,” explained the mission director of Africa2Moon, Dr Carla Mitchell.
The prototype testing sets the stage for the Africa2Moon mission, in which 55 antennas will be deployed on the Moon, each symbolising an African country.
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