Brazil · Cerrado · Planetary Observation
QAIB
Quantum Archaeoastronomy Institute of Brazil
Observation, inquiry and regenerative intelligence connecting local reality with planetary-scale knowledge.
Our Approach
Observe. Understand. Act.
Start with reality.
Pay attention to the landscape, people, systems and evidence actually present in the places where we live.
Connect the scales.
Bring local knowledge into conversation with scientific research, Earth observation, open data and wider planetary systems.
Make knowledge useful.
Turn better observation and understanding into practical, collaborative responses appropriate to local reality.
Archaeoastronomy · Landscape · Deep Time
Looking at the universe.
Reading the landscape.
QAIB began with a deceptively simple question: what can the ways people observed the sky, landscape and environment in the past teach us about understanding our place in the world today?
Observation extends beyond the horizon.
Archaeoastronomy examines how people have understood phenomena in the sky, how celestial cycles were observed, and how those observations became part of culture, navigation, timekeeping and relationships with place.
The sky is not separate from the landscape beneath it. Earth, Sun, season, water, climate and living systems are experienced together.
The landscape is also an instrument.
Observation does not stop at the telescope. Landform, water, vegetation, settlement, orientation and human movement all contain relationships that can be observed and investigated.
QAIB’s interest lies not simply in what earlier societies knew, but in how people learned to read the environments upon which they depended.
Environments change. Human responses change with them.
Climate, water, ecosystems and landscapes have never been static. Human communities have repeatedly had to observe changing conditions, understand their consequences and adapt.
Deep time therefore gives QAIB a longer observational frame: not a recipe copied from the past, but evidence that environmental awareness and adaptation are enduring parts of the human story.
Understanding how people observed and responded to change in the past can help us ask better questions about the changes we are observing now.
Current Work
Working from the local to the planetary.
NASA Space Apps · Cavalcante
Enter a live programme connecting planetary resources with local observations, questions and challenges.
Active TerritoryAeva
Explore relationships between observation, evidence, knowledge, questions and place.
Select TerritoryEarth & Community
Explore field observation, citizen science, Earth observation and locally relevant environmental evidence.
Select TerritoryRegenerative Field Work
Explore practical relationships between water, energy, biodiversity, habitat, community and resilient systems.
Select TerritoryLive Programme
NASA Space Apps · Cavalcante
A live local programme connecting Cavalcante with NASA challenges, planetary-scale resources and observations arising from the Cerrado.
Purpose, place, schedule and what is happening locally.
Official Space Apps challenges viewed through local questions.
Participants, teams, collaborators and ways to take part.
NASA, partner and local resources available to the event.
Inquiry Environment
Aeva
An observation and inquiry territory for connecting what people notice with evidence, questions, relationships and wider knowledge.
Begin with what is actually present and visible.
Turn observations into useful questions and lines of inquiry.
Reveal relationships between evidence, knowledge and place.
Follow the relationships into relevant information and tools.
Preserve what observation becomes.
A retained knowledge territory for observations, evidence, documents and institutional memory that should remain available for future inquiry.
Field Territory
Earth & Community
Local observation placed in conversation with citizen science, Earth observation and environmental evidence relevant to Cavalcante and the Cerrado.
What people can see, record and experience on the ground.
Satellite and planetary-scale evidence brought into local context.
Repeatable observations that communities can contribute themselves.
Landscape, water, vegetation, climate and environmental change.
Living Systems
Regenerative Field Work
Practical territories for observing how environmental, technical and human systems interact in real places.
Flows, storage, quality, reuse and relationships with landscape.
Local generation, efficiency, storage and circular energy systems.
Living relationships, habitat conditions and ecological observation.
People, settlement, food, infrastructure and resilient local systems.
Aeva
A place to ask better questions.
Aeva is QAIB’s observation, inquiry and interaction environment. It helps connect what people can see and experience locally with relevant information, scientific resources and wider systems.
The purpose is not to replace local knowledge or human judgement. It is to make relationships more visible, support inquiry and help people explore what might otherwise remain disconnected.
What are we seeing here?
Begin with the observation. Add local experience. Then explore what other evidence, data or relationships might help us understand it.
NASA Space Apps Challenge 2026
Cavalcante, Goiás.
Bringing planetary-scale observation into conversation with the questions, knowledge and challenges of a rural Cerrado community.
Participants will explore official NASA Space Apps challenges using NASA and partner resources alongside local observation, experience and creativity. No previous experience with NASA, satellite data or programming is required.
Scientists, students, programmers, designers, educators, guides, land managers, environmental practitioners, community members and curious problem-solvers are welcome.
Field Territory
Cavalcante · Cerrado · Vila Qatuan
QAIB works from real places. Cavalcante and the surrounding Cerrado provide a living territory in which environmental observation, community knowledge, technology and regenerative practice can meet.
Vila Qatuan provides one of the practical environments through which these relationships can be explored, tested and made visible.
Participation & Collaboration
Knowledge works better when it can connect.
QAIB participates in scientific, educational and collaborative networks that help connect local observation with wider knowledge, people and resources.
Contact QAIB
Start with a question.
Research, collaboration, field observation, Space Apps or simply something you’ve noticed that deserves a closer look.
concierge@qaib.org