She points STELLA at the foliage and, at the press of a button, a small screen displays a numerical readout of a dozen or so measurements—things like temperature, humidity, and. Like a set of vital signs at an annual checkup, the numbers can help determine the plant's overall health.
Several NASA Earth-observing satellites can help measure NDVI at a global scale, offering valuable data to farmers and foresters assessing the health of their crops and trees, especially in times of drought and heat. In fact, two high school interns at NASA Goddard spent the summer of 2023 building 40 of them under the direction of Mirel and STELLA team lead Mike Taylor. Christina Ballagh worked on the circuit boards that hold all the sensors and buttons."On average it takes two hours to make a whole STELLA," she noted. Sabrina Pillai worked on the screens."It's a ton of soldering, troubleshooting, and cleaning," she said.