--- title: Why South Africa is sending spheres to the moon | daily.dev description: South Africa's Africa2Moon mission will send three composite spheres — dubbed B.A.L.L.S. (Bounced African Low Lunar Spheres) — to the lunar south pole aboard... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/why-south-africa-is-sending-spheres-to-the-moon-n6jnwila6 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Why South Africa is sending spheres to the moon | daily.dev og:description: South Africa's Africa2Moon mission will send three composite spheres — dubbed B.A.L.L.S. (Bounced African Low Lunar Spheres) — to the lunar south pole aboard... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/why-south-africa-is-sending-spheres-to-the-moon-n6jnwila6 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/N6JNwiLA6.png og:image:alt: Why South Africa is sending spheres to the moon 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. # Why South Africa is sending spheres to the moon **[TechCentral](https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral)** · 4 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary South Africa's Africa2Moon mission will send three composite spheres — dubbed B.A.L.L.S. (Bounced African Low Lunar Spheres) — to the lunar south pole aboard China's Chang'e-8 mission in 2029. The spheres carry low-frequency radio antennas designed to form the world's first radio telescope array on the lunar surface, operating below 20MHz — a frequency band blocked by Earth's ionosphere and therefore unobservable from the ground. Electronics and communication systems were developed by Stellenbosch University's Electronic Systems Laboratory, with four master's students completing working systems by March 2026. The demonstrator is due to be shipped to China by mid-2026 for integration assessment. The long-term vision is to deploy 55 such antennas — one per African nation — on the moon, enabling study of the universe's earliest epochs. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is the Africa2Moon mission and what will it do on the moon? Africa2Moon is Africa's first space exploration mission, sending three composite spheres called B.A.L.L.S. (Bounced African Low Lunar Spheres) to the moon's south pole aboard China's Chang'e-8 robotic lander in 2029. Built with electronics from Stellenbosch University, the spheres contain low-frequency radio antennas designed to prove that radio astronomy below 20MHz is possible from the lunar surface, a band blocked on Earth by the ionosphere. _daily.dev surfaces engineering stories like lunar payload development for those tracking space electronics work._ ### Why can't radio telescopes on Earth observe frequencies below 20MHz? Earth's ionosphere blocks and distorts radio waves below about 20MHz, making that entire slice of the radio spectrum, including signals from the universe's earliest epochs, undetectable by any ground-based telescope, including the Square Kilometre Array. The moon lacks an ionosphere and has far less radio interference, making it an ideal location for observing this otherwise hidden frequency range. _Engineers exploring novel sensing environments can follow similar space instrumentation coverage on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Africa’s moon telescope project will listen for alien technology](https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-moon-telescope-project-will-listen-for-alien-technology-yczuotgbz) · TechCentral · 0 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 - [China Is Shooting For The Moon Sooner Than You Think](https://daily.dev/posts/china-is-shooting-for-the-moon-sooner-than-you-think-lrxakgpvr) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/why-south-africa-is-sending-spheres-to-the-moon-n6jnwila6) ```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":"Why South Africa is sending spheres to the moon","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-south-africa-is-sending-spheres-to-the-moon-n6jnwila6","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-south-africa-is-sending-spheres-to-the-moon-n6jnwila6"},"datePublished":"2026-07-20T09:37:05.853Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T21:06:06.768Z","description":"South Africa's Africa2Moon mission will send three composite spheres — dubbed B.A.L.L.S. 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(Bounced African Low Lunar Spheres) to the moon's south pole aboard China's Chang'e-8 robotic lander in 2029. Built with electronics from Stellenbosch University, the spheres contain low-frequency radio antennas designed to prove that radio astronomy below 20MHz is possible from the lunar surface, a band blocked on Earth by the ionosphere. daily.dev surfaces engineering stories like lunar payload development for those tracking space electronics work."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why can't radio telescopes on Earth observe frequencies below 20MHz?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Earth's ionosphere blocks and distorts radio waves below about 20MHz, making that entire slice of the radio spectrum, including signals from the universe's earliest epochs, undetectable by any ground-based telescope, including the Square Kilometre Array. 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