Inrange Hopes To Fill In Missing Gaps Of The Range Revolution

In the emptiest corner of the Northern Cape province of South Africa, an array of gargantuan deep-space radio antennas are looking for answers to the most pressing questions mankind has ever asked.

These ultra-sensitive MeerKAT telescopes, which are being built to search up to 9 billion light years away, are so precise that they can detect a cellphone signal from Jupiter nearly 500 million miles from earth. By adding hundreds of the receivers together and pointing them toward the recesses of space, researchers hope to find evidence of alien life, the Big Bang or other untold secrets of the universe that may be lurking in the distance.

And strangely, this ambitious project has a meaningful connection to the golf world.

The same South African engineers who built those MeerKAT telescopes – and who previously created FEKO, a code for high-frequency engineering applications like radar that is now used by NASA, Boeing, BMW and others – happen to like golf. Dissatisfied with the traditional driving ranges they would frequent in thei...