Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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OUTER SPACE — If you’ve ever dreamed of being a space explorer — like after watching “Space Camp” in 1986 — this might make you green with envy.
Jeff Highsmith took his two boys on a trip to the Kennedy Space Center in 2013, and since then they’ve had space on the brain. So when his older son started school, Highsmith built him a seemingly regular desk for homework. But when the top of the desk flips up, it becomes a mission control panel complete with buttons, toggles, lights and sounds to make for exciting space play.
But Highsmith — a self-proclaimed “tinkerer extraordinaire” — soon found that any self-respecting mission control desk operator needed a spaceship to monitor and interact with. So Highsmith made arguably the most intensely immersive space toy created for kids.
He posted his process of building the spacecraft on Make, a website dedicated to a “community of makers who bring a DIY mindset to technology.” And while you may think a nearly six-minute video filled with the technicalities of building and wiring would be a bit boring, it’s actually fascinating to see the thoughtful planning and skilled work he put into his incredible finished product. (Plus the video timed and edited well. Is there anything this guy can't do?)
The craft not only includes joysticks, panels and several kinds of buttons, lights and actual sounds pulled from NASA’s sound archive, but it includes a robotic arm that can place and pluck satellites in “outer space” — a line rigged with magnets outside the craft. And the kids control it all from inside the spacecraft, using a levered control panel and video display.
The spacecraft and mission control desk are both equipped with headsets, so the boys can play and interact together from different rooms, making the illusion of space at home just a little more real. Not to mention the bass shaker located under that craft for a touch of realism when his kids fire up the engines or run through the Apollo 12 lightning strike or the Apollo 13 simulations built into the system.
I could go on, but it may be best if you just watch the video and read his even more detailed write-up on Make.
