Moon Landing TV Diorama

When you think about school projects, the odd exploding volcano or poster displays about types of fish probably come to mind. This father and nine-year-old daughter duo, however, went well above that educational bar and built a “working” TV set depicting the moon landing as it would have been seen by millions of people.

Rather than using a cathode ray tube, the two constructed a diorama of the landing inside the faux TV, brought to life with a Raspberry Pi. An array of white LEDs represent the stars above, while Neil Armstrong gets a red LED, the Moon Lander is adorned by a yellow light, and Buzz Aldrin… is apparently busy elsewhere.

Channel selection buttons trigger famous moon landing quotes, such as JFK’s speech about it being a hard task, “the Eagle has landed,” “stepping off the ladder,” and “one small step for man.” The device is powered by a USB battery pack, which allows it to run for 12 hours between charges, and also provide power while being charged.

This turned out to be especially advantageous, as the teacher “wanted to be able to take it easily into other classrooms because it was the best project he'd ever seen in the school.” We’ll assume she got an ‘A’ for the project, and you can find the wiring diagram for it here.