Jeff Highsmith, who created a Mission Control Desk for his kids earlier this year, has now unveiled his latest creation. It’s a command capsule that mimics the Apollo moon missions! Made out of wood, it has 38 switches of various types and 291 LEDs inside. An Arduino is used for inputs and outputs for the main instrument panel and a Raspberry Pi performs logic calculations and produces various sounds. Programming inside the Pi triggers simulations of both the Apollo 12 lightning strike and the Apollo 13 cryo tank disaster and there is even an iPhone dock for playing back mission videos. There’s also a mechanised payload bay door (with a camera and screen so you can see what’s going on as your payload bay is exposed to ‘space’). The whole thing is, of course, not practical (it doesn’t fly in space, obviously) but Jeff as designed the two pieces to be used as props for creative play. From the video you can tell his sons get a real kick out of using it! Read more here