Matjiesfontein in the Karoo to host new US-South African lunar exploration partnership

A new deep space ground tracking station is to be built at Matjiesfontein in the Central Karoo District of the Western Cape to help the United States’ Artemis missions return humans to the Moon.

The antenna will be one of several 18- to 24-metre communications antennas placed strategically around the globe to ensure near-continuous connectivity between astronauts on Nasa’s Artemis spacecraft and those who will subsequently come to work on and around the lunar surface.

Previously, South Africa was home to a ground tracking station at Hartebeesthoek outside Johannesburg that played a critical role in Nasa’s Apollo missions in the 1960s. Artemis, named for Apollo’s twin sister, will land the first woman and first person of colour on the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence, and serving as a stepping stone to send astronauts to Mars.

Raoul Hodges, managing director of the South African National Space Agency (Sansa) Space Operations, says a Deep Space Network has the ability to communicate with spacecraft, humans, probes and any other object that is beyond low-Earth orbit in space. Sansa intends to put up one antenna in 2024.

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“We hope to have more clients that want to invest in Matjiesfontein and this would ensure more antennas. Sansa is also planning to put other smaller antennas, such as 3.7m and 7.3m antenna, for research and Earth observation data.”

The intention is to track all the Nasa missions planned in the 40-year Artemis programme. These are all missions to the Moon and beyond and will range from payloads, probes and humans.

“To track these payloads, they need to be visible to the antenna. Therefore, there will be at least three to five stations worldwide to have visibility and backup in case of failures.  

“When a rocket is launched from a particular launch site, Sansa is normally first in line to acquire the rocket and download the telemetric data. This enables the owner to know whether the payload is on the right track and determines the health thereof. 

“Thereafter, we track it when visible and relay the data to the owner of the payload till the end of mission,” he says.

When the next generation of moonwalkers set foot on Earth’s satellite in a few years’ time, we will know that a huge antenna just three kilometres from the hotel at Matjiesfontein has tracked them there and back. DM/OBP