South African space enthusiasts have welcomed the news that the US’s National Aeronautics and Space Agency and the South African National Space Agency have renewed their partnership in lunar exploration.
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.
Raoul Hodges, managing director of the South African National Space Agency 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.“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.
“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.
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