Launch an Imaginary Shuttle with a Mission Control Mockup Toy That's Out of This World

The Purpose

When you ask a kid what they want to do when they're older, their response will probably contain the word "astronaut". However, that's not exactly practical, so why not make a toy that lets them imagine they're in control of a giant space shuttle instead? Well, that is exactly what Gordon Callison on Instructables set out to create with his shuttle mission control box. By letting users interact with a wide array of various buttons and dials, and then getting to see those results in the form of blinking LEDs, imaginations can run wild.

Designing the Box

The main part of this project are the three control panels. Callison designed them such that each of the three panels displayed a separate part of the "mission's" information, including pre-flight, launch, and orbit/information functions. Each piece was fashioned from a sheet of 1/2" plywood for added rigidity, and the completed box comes in at around 2 feet by 1.5 feet large. It also features a cutout for a 110-volt plug for powering the entire thing.

Electrical Components

Most of the components for this project are really simple buttons or LEDs that create a fun, tactile experience. As seen in the list for all of the parts, there are a lot of them. Some standouts include 32 5mm LEDs in the main panel and a series of seven switches for the pre-flight checking one.

All of these parts require plenty of GPIO pins, so Callison used a few shift registers when controlling large banks of LEDs along with an Arduino Mega for the microcontroller. Information is also displayed on a couple of seven-segment displays for counting down to launch and seeing the current telemetry of the virtual space shuttle.

Assembly

As one might imagine, assembling all of these components together took quite a while to accomplish. Callison began by meticulously placing each of the buttons and LEDs into their correct locations within the panels.

Next, he wired up the Adafruit seven-segment displays via the I2C bus after making sure to set each one to a different address. Once the Arduino Uno was connected to an Adafruit Audio FX Sound Board it was time to finish drilling the holes into the map and running the remaining LEDs.

Making It Come to Life

The large banks of LEDs and switches would be quite boring if they didn't do anything, so a bit of programming was needed first. The code initializes many variables, such as keeping track of the countdown and storing the values for the shuttle's telemetry. After the timer reaches zero and the launch button is pressed, the system roars to life and actually simulates what the real shuttle would have done. Variability is introduced into the system via some random() function calls so it doesn't get too boring. Once the player is done, the Abort button can be pressed to end the flight and reset all of the variables back to their default values.

Future Plans

This project is already great, but Callison thinks it could be even better with some modifications. For one, a mission hour counter would be great to keep track of how much time the shuttle has been flying. A fourth panel would also make a great addition since it could display the current interior environmental conditions, such as pressure, oxygen, and temperature levels.

You can see this project in action in this YouTube video on it.