At least that’s the intention behind the Africa2Moon Mission which aims to muster enough money through internet donations to send a probe to the lunar surface within a decade.
The project has been proposed by the Foundation for Space Development South Africa, a non-profit based in Cape Town that seeks to increase awareness around space education and research.
By reaching for the stars (or moon, in this case), the idea is to energize the youth of South Africa and beyond and to boldly take the continent where its never gone before.
“We aim to inspire, to educate and then once the mission has started up, to do research and science,” the organization’s chief executive, Jonathan Weltman, told CNN.
The mission’s website proudly states that the probe could even be programmed to beam pictures of the experiments it undertakes to classrooms all across Africa.
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“We have to have education. Education leads to opportunity and opportunity will lead to economic empowerment,” he explained.
“Beyond education you have to have skill retention. Its no good creating an educated group who then migrate to better shores. Then you lose that skillset and you lose those future leaders because you’re not providing for them.”
“If we don’t do that what chance do we ever have of standing shoulder to shoulder so that one day people saying ‘Africa goes to Mars’ is as normal as saying ‘America goes to Mars,’ he said.
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