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VOIDHARVEST

NASA Space Apps Challenge

Know your soil.
Choose your next crop with confidence.

VoidHarvest is designed to turn NASA Earth observations into plain answers for farmers: which rotation to try, when to plant, and where to check the ground first.

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Prototype with demonstration data. Nothing has been retrieved from NASA or measured on a farm yet.

Conceptual schematic: the demo farm's parcels, crop rows and sampling points. Illustrative, not a real map.

The challenge

Farmers decide with too little information

Choosing a rotation is a bet on rain, soil and prices. Better information would make it a smaller bet.

  • 01

    The seasons are harder to read

    Rain arrives late, stops early or comes in a few heavy storms. Rules of thumb that worked for years are less reliable.

    Heavy clouds gathering over a green crop field
    Photo: Javier Garcia Chavez, Unsplash

  • 02

    The soil hides what matters

    Moisture 30 cm down decides if roots survive a dry spell, yet you cannot see it from the surface or from space.

    A hand letting dark soil fall back into a wheelbarrow
    Photo: Zoe Schaeffer, Unsplash

  • 03

    The data is scattered and technical

    Satellite products exist, but they come in formats and units made for scientists, not for the person choosing what to plant.

    Earth seen from space, with Africa under swirling clouds
    Photo: NASA, via Unsplash

The solution

One view that turns satellite context and field checks into a decision

VoidHarvest pairs wide-area NASA context with a few measurements on your own ground, then shows the trade-offs between crop rotations in language you can act on.

  • Compare rotations side by side

    See three strategies with timelines, benefits, risks and how sure we are about each.

  • Rank by what you care about

    Put water, income or soil first and watch the order change, with a plain explanation of why.

  • Say what we do not know

    Every number carries its source and confidence. Missing data is listed, never hidden.

Example: Water first · Demo visualization

  1. 1Water Resilience rotation79.8 / 100
  2. 2Soil Health rotation68.9 / 100
  3. 3Current practice44.8 / 100

Scores come from invented demonstration values and a simple weighting. They are not model results.

Showing: Your farm. Five zones drawn from the farm description. Schematic, not a map. Conceptual demonstration, not retrieved data.

Your farm

Five zones drawn from the farm description. Schematic, not a map.

Conceptual demo. Not retrieved data.

How it works

From satellite context to a decision in five steps

Steps marked Demo exist as screens today. Steps marked Planned are the next build.

  1. 01 / 05

    Describe your farm

    Crop, slope, soil and what you want to protect: water, income or soil.

    Demo

  2. 02 / 05

    Gather NASA context

    Rain, soil moisture, heat, greenness and slope are meant to arrive from NASA Earth observation layers.

    Planned source

  3. 03 / 05

    Check the ground

    Five zones, five points each. Moisture at the surface and at 30 cm shows what satellites cannot.

    Planned

  4. 04 / 05

    Compare rotations

    Crop-water results for each strategy are meant to come from a backend model. Today they are shown as a demonstration.

    Demo

  5. 05 / 05

    Decide and learn

    Pick a rotation and a planting window, then compare what satellites said with what the ground showed.

    Planned

NASA-powered intelligence

Six NASA layers, each answering a farmer's question

These are the datasets VoidHarvest plans to use. No data has been retrieved yet: each view on the farm is a demonstration of how that layer would look.

  1. SMAP

    Soil Moisture Active Passive

    Is the soil wet or dry right now, and is it drying fast?

    Big coarse cells: the whole farm sits inside a few pixels. Blue is wetter, sand is drier.

    Measures
    Surface and root-zone soil moisture
    Detail
    ~9 km
    Updates
    Every 2–3 days
    Planned NASA source · demo visualization

  2. GPM IMERG

    Global Precipitation Measurement

    How much rain fell, and did it come in a few heavy storms?

    Rain as soft storm cells, one heavy and one light. It tells you a storm happened, not which field got it.

    Measures
    Rainfall estimates
    Detail
    ~10 km
    Updates
    Every 30 minutes
    Planned NASA source · demo visualization

  3. POWER

    Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources

    Is it hotter or sunnier than usual for this crop stage?

    An even coarser grid with sun and warmth. One value covers the farm: useful for the season, not for a zone.

    Measures
    Sunlight, temperature, humidity, wind
    Detail
    ~50 km grid
    Updates
    Daily
    Planned NASA source · demo visualization

  4. HLS / MODIS

    Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 and MODIS

    Are my plants growing as green and fast as they should?

    A fine mosaic of greenness. Healthy rows show dense green, stressed ones fade towards straw.

    Measures
    Crop greenness (vegetation index)
    Detail
    30 m (HLS) · 250 m (MODIS)
    Updates
    Every 2–5 days (cloud permitting)
    Planned NASA source · demo visualization

  5. ECOSTRESS

    ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station

    Are my plants running hot, a sign they are short of water?

    Surface heat in medium pixels. Plants that cannot drink enough run hotter than their neighbours.

    Measures
    Plant and land surface temperature
    Detail
    ~70 m
    Updates
    Irregular passes
    Planned NASA source · demo visualization

  6. SRTM

    Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

    Where does water run off, and where does it collect?

    Contour lines and a height tint from the same terrain: water runs downhill and collects in the low edge.

    Measures
    Elevation and slope
    Detail
    ~30 m
    Updates
    Static (2000)
    Planned NASA source · demo visualization

Resolutions are nominal product specifications. Satellites see wide areas and the soil surface, which is why VoidHarvest pairs them with local readings at 30 cm.

Under the surface

What satellites cannot see

Satellites read the top of the soil. Roots live deeper. That is why VoidHarvest plans a second reading at 30 cm, at the same points, so the ground can confirm or contradict the sky.

  • Blue pin: reading at the surface, where satellites can see.
  • Orange pin: reading at 30 cm, below where they cannot.
Conceptual schematic soil with demonstration values. Not real soil data.

Case study

Testing the idea on real ground

The first test is planned for Bad Voids in Jocotenango, Sacatepéquez. We will share what we measure, including anything that disagrees with the satellites.

PlannedVisit planned 15 Nov 2026

Five zones, five points per zone, soil moisture at the surface and at 30 cm. Ground readings will be compared with satellite context for the same dates.

Read the case study

Jocotenango, Sacatepéquez — Bad Voids

Municipality
Jocotenango
Department
Sacatepéquez
Country
Guatemala
Site
Bad Voids
Planned visit
15 November 2026
Measurements recorded
None yet

See what a field decision could look like

Explore the demo farm, or create an account and build your own before you enter Farm Intelligence.

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Prototype with demonstration data. No real accounts.