NASA scientists and engineers, in collaboration with university researchers, have developed low‐cost lightweight remote sensing instruments that anyone can build and use to bring remote sensing science to communities beyond traditional professional scientists.

Watch Dr. Petya Campbell, a NASA Goddard research scientist with over 20 years of field experience, demonstrate how ground-based STELLA spectrometer measurements directly support NASA satellite missions by validating Earth observation data.

When Inna and Alexa first encountered NASA's STELLA instruments, neither expected the transformative journey ahead—from intimidation to innovation in just 10 weeks.

Inna Shapovalenko and Alexa Matson's collaborative journey with the STELLA project showcases how open-source engineering provides students with real-world skills through hardware design, software development, and community-driven innovation.

The culmination of Bianca's calibration work may be a research paper that establishes STELLA's credibility as a scientific instrument rather than just an educational tool.