It has been a little over a year since the release of the Open DSKY, and the impact it has made is nothing short of amazing. The product has received a lot of attention from the community, and some backers have even gone ahead to create more realistic 3D printed versions of the DSKY. These contributors have also developed software that goes beyond the initial 3 Verbs, 3 Nouns and 3 Programs code that was meant to only test and demonstrate the hardware functionality of the device.
One notable backer and contributor, Bill Walker, started the “Apollo Education Experience Project” with the goal of building a full-scale Command Module replica that can be transported to schools and other locations as an educational exhibit. Bill is using two Open DSKY units at the heart of his full-scale recreation of the Apollo 11 Command Module, and he has re-written the entire Open DSKY software to provide more interactivity and interest. Bill's custom version now includes nearly 50 functions, 15 audio tracks, and 2 full-length simulations with synchronized audio, using combinations of 11 Verbs, 17 Nouns, and 9 Progs. He even recreated the shutdown and restart sequence as seen in the movie “Apollo 13”.
The software and comprehensive “Open DSKY Command Reference” manual, modeled after the Apollo Flight Plan, is currently available exclusively through the Project. It is pre-loaded on an Arduino Nano, with the 17 audio tracks pre-loaded on a micro-SD card, and a custom-printed manual with a cover in your choice of 5 colors. All this will be sent to you as a complimentary “thank-you” gift for a modest donation to the Project’s GoFundMe campaign to help raise much-needed funds to build this important educational project.
Since the release of the Open DSKY, it has also received a lot of attention on Instructables, with over 8,000 views and over 90 makers favoriting the instructable. The feedback and testimonials from the community have been overwhelmingly positive, with comments ranging from "An awesome job, congratulations!" to "AWESOME!" and "Nice project .. but no core memory? What fun is that? (LOL)". One engineer who worked on the design of the DSKY even commented, "Thanks for bringing back such a historical bit of our technological history."
Overall, the Open DSKY has made a significant impact on the community, and we are thrilled with the collaboration and support we have received. We will continue to add more software functionality to the Open DSKY, and we are excited to see where this project will go in the future.