Recreate the Apollo Guidance Computer

Michael Newton, a Calgary-based aircraft avionics engineer, has built a working, life-size replica of the Apollo Guidance Computer’s DSKY, the display and keypad astronauts used to operate the computer. The open-source Recreate Apollo project combines a Raspberry Pi running the Virtual AGC emulator with microcontrollers and a 3D-printed case based on archived NASA engineering drawings. Its software runs the Apollo 13 Command Module program, letting users interact with authentic guidance-computer routines. Newton began with CAD files developed by Apollo enthusiasts, refined missing or unfinished parts, and documented the build so others can reproduce it, including people new to electronics and 3D printing.

The replica is about 90 percent faithful in appearance, with practical changes inside for modern components and a slightly altered screen mount and key lettering. The emulator preserves the original machine’s 1.024MHz timing, 15-bit data words plus parity, and unusual operating constraints, rather than merely imitating its interface. The project also offers a network-connected peripheral mode for use with the Orbiter space-flight simulator’s Apollo add-on. Newton’s build highlights the ingenuity of the original AGC, whose designers constructed its functions using a single kind of logic gate - a three-input NOR - along with occasional diode arrangements. CAD models, schematics, and a 100-page guide are freely available; Newton hopes to develop a more premium version with an aluminium body, improved indicators, and a better keypad.