Engineering.com

S&T Geotronics is building replicas of the Apollo missions DSKY controllers.

James Sanderson and Marc Tessier are the engineers and makers that run S&T GeoTronics, LLC. The company specializes in Open Source Arduino projects and are currently running a crowdfunding campaign for their Open DSKY project. The DSKY (DiSplay and KeYboard) is a replica of the one that astronauts used to communicate with the AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer) on each Apollo Command Module and Lunar Module.

The DSKY units consist of a 3D printed enclosure and Arduino Nano boards, laser cut interface panels and buttons, a printed circuitboard, and the electronics. Different options for the project can send just the printed circuitboard all the way up to a fully assembled unit. As part of Kickstarter’s Make 100 intiative, one hundred limited units are being sold completely assembled and in a mahogany box.

The box uses the standard NOUN, VERB, Number commands developed by MIT for the Apollo missions, with several options and soundbites already programmed into the unit. The commitment to Open Source means that end users can customize the units for their own projects. Every unit has a LED lit keypad, clock, GPSr, gyroscope, MP3 player and USB connection. Different demonstration videos show soundbites, alarms and timers.

Open DSKY is a great small scale project that caters to what I’ve learned is an incredibly large and hungry base of space memorabilia / gadget enthusiasts. S&T Geotronics previously released their Open Enigma project way back in 2014 and this looks like a cool addition to the company’s output. My favorite part of this campaign, beyond the standard disclaimer that the project is in no way affiliated with NASA or MIT, is the disclaimer that S&T does not grant permission for the use of the device to launch spacecraft or missiles. The Kickstarter campaign ends on March 3, 2018 and if successful the rewards are expected to ship by August 2018, more than enough time to celebrate the 50 th anniversary of the moon landing.