Engineering & Science Discovery Through Affordable DIY Instrumentation
Engineering & Science Discovery Through Affordable DIY Instrumentation
STELLA (Science and Technology Education for Land/Life Assessment) is a force multiplier for NASA Missions and programs – it amplifies their impact by breaking down barriers that make satellite remote sensing seem inaccessible, transforming mission data from abstract numbers into tangible participatory science that develops the technical workforce Earth observation systems depend upon while creating thousands of mission-literate professionals who understand why NASA investments matter.
STELLA (Science and Technology Education for Land/Life Assessment) is a force multiplier for NASA Missions and programs – it amplifies their impact by breaking down barriers that make satellite remote sensing seem inaccessible, transforming mission data from abstract numbers into tangible participatory science that develops the technical workforce Earth observation systems depend upon while creating thousands of mission-literate professionals who understand why NASA investments matter.
Join the STELLA Community Forum! Let's Build, Share, and Innovate Together!
STELLA Highlights
A group of high school students in Michigan is rebuilding NASA's open source STELLA-Q2 spectrometer to help monitor coral health in the Dominican Republic. What started as a classroom exercise became personal the moment they saw real coral bleaching on screen. Since then, they've redesigned hardware, debugged their own code, and learned to work the way professional engineers do, one failure and fix at a time. This is a story about what happens when students are given a real problem and trusted to solve it.
STELLA field team measured Morven's fields alongside NASA drone and G-LiHT surveys to calibrate the low cost, open source spectrometer, while training the next generation of field scientists.
Arizona State University undergraduate Ahadu Assegued spent a year asking a practical question about Earth observation: how do the spectral readings from STELLA, a low-cost open-source spectrometer developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, compare with those from research-grade hyperspectral imaging and satellite data?
Three UC Santa Barbara students field-tested NASA's $200 STELLA-Q2 spectrometer against a high-end industry standard in the Anza-Borrego Desert. Their hands-on project validated the affordable, open-source tool's potential for environmental monitoring while providing invaluable real-world experience in remote sensing and instrument calibration.
Rachel Stagner is STEM Coordinator and science educator at Templeton Academy in Washington, D.C. has developed a thoughtful, practical approach to bringing NASA science into the classroom.
Featured Videos
A group of high school students in Michigan is rebuilding NASA's open source STELLA-Q2 spectrometer to help monitor coral health in the Dominican Republic. What started as a classroom exercise became personal the moment they saw real coral bleaching on screen. Since then, they've redesigned hardware, debugged their own code, and learned to work the way professional engineers do, one failure and fix at a time. This is a story about what happens when students are given a real problem and trusted to solve it.
STELLA field team measured Morven's fields alongside NASA drone and G-LiHT surveys to calibrate the low cost, open source spectrometer, while training the next generation of field scientists.
Arizona State University undergraduate Ahadu Assegued spent a year asking a practical question about Earth observation: how do the spectral readings from STELLA, a low-cost open-source spectrometer developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, compare with those from research-grade hyperspectral imaging and satellite data?
Three UC Santa Barbara students field-tested NASA's $200 STELLA-Q2 spectrometer against a high-end industry standard in the Anza-Borrego Desert. Their hands-on project validated the affordable, open-source tool's potential for environmental monitoring while providing invaluable real-world experience in remote sensing and instrument calibration.
Rachel Stagner is STEM Coordinator and science educator at Templeton Academy in Washington, D.C. has developed a thoughtful, practical approach to bringing NASA science into the classroom.