--- title: Africa’s moon telescope project will listen for alien... description: A newly published Nature Astronomy paper details how Africa2Moon, a lunar radio telescope set to fly aboard China's Chang'e-8 mission in 2029, will actually... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-moon-telescope-project-will-listen-for-alien-technology-yczuotgbz twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Africa’s moon telescope project will listen for alien technology | daily.dev og:description: A newly published Nature Astronomy paper details how Africa2Moon, a lunar radio telescope set to fly aboard China's Chang'e-8 mission in 2029, will actually... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-moon-telescope-project-will-listen-for-alien-technology-yczuotgbz og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/YcZuoTGBZ.png og:image:alt: Africa’s moon telescope project will listen for alien technology og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Africa’s moon telescope project will listen for alien technology **[TechCentral](https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A newly published Nature Astronomy paper details how Africa2Moon, a lunar radio telescope set to fly aboard China's Chang'e-8 mission in 2029, will actually work. Three small spheres called Balls will roll across the lunar south pole surface, spreading apart to form the baseline of a radio interferometer. Each sphere holds triple loop antennas, solar panels and electronics, and will operate for at least six Earth days observing Earth, the sun, the galaxy and the moon's surface, including a search for technosignatures. Rhodes University's Oleg Smirnov, drawing on expertise from MeerKAT and the Square Kilometre Array, is principal investigator for radio astronomy. The eventual full mission envisions 55 antennae on the lunar far side, one per African nation. Flying as part of China's mission avoided an estimated R1.3-billion cost of an independent launch. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does the Africa2Moon lunar radio telescope actually work? Three small spheres called Balls, each about 30cm across and under 4kg, roll freely across the lunar surface after landing until the distance between them forms the baseline of a radio interferometer. Each sphere contains three concentric orthogonal loop antennas, eight solar panels, and an electronics box, functioning as an independent radio receiver for at least six Earth days. _Space and radio astronomy enthusiasts follow interferometry breakthroughs like this one on daily.dev._ ### Will the Africa2Moon mission search for alien signals? Yes, the array will search for technosignatures, possible evidence of technology beyond Earth, alongside observing Earth, the sun, the galaxy, and the lunar surface itself during its six-day operating window at the lunar south pole. This SETI-type work was not part of how the mission had previously been described. _Readers tracking space science milestones like this can follow updates on daily.dev._ ### How much would it have cost to launch the Africa2Moon payload independently? Flying the Africa2Moon payload alone would have cost around R1.3-billion, according to mission lead scientist Adriana Marais. Securing a slot among China's Chang'e-8 international payloads eliminated that cost, making the difference between a mission that flies and one that stays on paper. _Engineers weighing mission costs and partnerships can track space funding stories on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Why South Africa is sending spheres to the moon](https://daily.dev/posts/why-south-africa-is-sending-spheres-to-the-moon-n6jnwila6) · TechCentral · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Space Forge Evaluates In-Orbit Manufacturing Tech](https://daily.dev/posts/space-forge-evaluates-in-orbit-manufacturing-tech-gbzb4k6dy) · IEEE Spectrum · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI Boom Fuels DRAM Shortage and Price Surge](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-boom-fuels-dram-shortage-and-price-surge-flppyzdan) · IEEE Spectrum · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [IEEE Honors Innovators Shaping AI and Education](https://daily.dev/posts/ieee-honors-innovators-shaping-ai-and-education-gipcnmoj2) · IEEE Spectrum · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-moon-telescope-project-will-listen-for-alien-technology-yczuotgbz) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Africa’s moon telescope project will listen for alien technology","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-moon-telescope-project-will-listen-for-alien-technology-yczuotgbz","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-moon-telescope-project-will-listen-for-alien-technology-yczuotgbz"},"datePublished":"2026-08-17T12:19:29.749Z","dateModified":"2026-08-17T12:19:54.689Z","description":"A newly published Nature Astronomy paper details how Africa2Moon, a lunar radio telescope set to fly aboard China's Chang'e-8 mission in 2029, will actually...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1b6789871214de3ad34db40b035e9427?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1b6789871214de3ad34db40b035e9427?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCentral","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCentral","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--RsqLDZrL--/f_auto/v1717745297/logos/techcentral","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-moon-telescope-project-will-listen-for-alien-technology-yczuotgbz","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCentral","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Africa’s moon telescope project will listen for alien technology"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-moon-telescope-project-will-listen-for-alien-technology-yczuotgbz#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How does the Africa2Moon lunar radio telescope actually work?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Three small spheres called Balls, each about 30cm across and under 4kg, roll freely across the lunar surface after landing until the distance between them forms the baseline of a radio interferometer. 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