The Africa2Moon mission, led by Carla Mitchell with Dr Adriana Marais as head of science, is developing three spherical radio antennas that are due to travel to the Moon aboard China’s Chang’e-8 mission in 2029. The team says the project will also support a classroom programme aimed at encouraging Grade 8 and 9 learners — especially those at disadvantaged and rural schools — to choose Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects for matric.
Home-grown hardware, classroom ambitions
The antennas are being built by the Africa2Moon team as part of an African contribution to lunar science. According to reporting on the project, the instruments are spherical radio antennas designed for deployment on the lunar surface. The project leaders are developing a low-cost, simplified version of the instrument that can be used for hands-on science in classrooms.
“Ideally this would be a platform for young people to get excited about space and then use space to excite them about science and maths and engineering. We’re busy developing a sort of low-cost, simpler version of the instrument that kids can actually do science in the classroom with,” Mitchell told The Education Desk.
The team’s educational work targets learners making subject choices in Grade 8 and 9 — a crucial stage that can determine whether pupils will be able to enter STEM degrees and careers after matric. The outreach is explicitly focused on disadvantaged and rural schools, where access to practical science experiences is often limited.
Why this matters to South Africa
Government and university researchers have warned that too few South African pupils select the gateway subjects needed for STEM pathways. When releasing the 2025 matric results, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said South Africa needed earlier interventions to grow the number of pupils taking Mathematics and Physical Science — an observation that helps explain the education component of the Africa2Moon project.
The mission combines three threads that are important for national technology ambitions:
- Advanced engineering: locally developed radio hardware destined for the lunar environment.
- International collaboration: integration with China’s Chang’e-8 mission provides flight opportunity and scientific partnership.
- STEM pipeline development: classroom tools and outreach aimed at increasing matric-level subject uptake.
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Project leads | Carla Mitchell (director); Dr Adriana Marais (head of science) |
| Payload | Three spherical radio antennas |
| Launch vehicle | China’s Chang’e-8 lunar mission |
| Target date | 2029 |
Practical challenges and opportunities
Sending hardware to the Moon is technically demanding and expensive. The Africa2Moon team’s stated approach — building a simple classroom analogue of the flight instrument — aims to stretch the mission’s impact beyond the narrow scientific community and into the school system. If successful, the classroom kit could provide practical experiments that make abstract classroom concepts tangible for learners who otherwise have limited access to laboratory resources.
That could matter for South Africa’s broader technology ecosystem. More learners choosing Mathematics and Physical Science at matric level increases the pool of candidates eligible for engineering, physics and computer science degrees — fields that underpin local industries from telecommunications to satellite engineering.
The Africa2Moon mission is also an example of African institutions engaging in high-profile international space activity. Partnership with China’s lunar programme provides a flight opportunity that would be difficult to secure independently and highlights the role such collaborations can play in advancing local capability.
For learners and teachers, the immediate question will be whether the classroom version of the instrument is affordable, accessible and backed by teacher training and curriculum-aligned materials. The project’s emphasis on disadvantaged and rural schools recognises where interventions are most needed, but success will rely on implementation details that the team has yet to publish.
The Africa2Moon initiative brings together moon-bound hardware and classroom outreach in an attempt to link high-end research with grassroots education — a combination that, if executed well, could strengthen South Africa’s long-term STEM pipeline while putting locally developed technology on the lunar surface.
