Innovation

Is there anyone out there? Africa2Moon’s modular radio telescope.

It has been 54 years since US astronaut Eugene Cernan stepped off the lunar surface on December 14 1972, at the end of the final Apollo 17 mission. The 1990s saw a return with uncrewed missions, and now NASA’s Artemis programme aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface. This year will see China launch its Chang’e-7 robotic mission, and in 2028 or 2029, the Chang’e-8 mission, will, if all goes according to plan, settle into the powdery Moon dust on the Mons Mouton near the lunar South Pole.

Africa2Moon is a radio telescope mission, and in April 2025, it was selected as an international payload on the Chang’e-8. The China National Space Administration chose payloads from 11 countries and regions, including a lunar rover from Pakistan and astronomy and particle analysis instruments from, among others, Russia, Thailand and Bahrain. Africa2Moon’s instrument is called BALLS, for Bounced African Lunar Low Spheres. These are small loop antennas inside spherical casings that roll into position on the Moon’s surface, forming a modular radio telescope large enough to detect signals in the sub-20 MHz frequency range to study the early universe and solar activity.