Kerbal Space Program is a tough game to describe, but the best possible description I can give it is "NASA: The Game." It’s a spaceflight sim, where the goal is to design ships and launch the adorable Kerbals into space, helping them explore their solar system without reaching an untimely and fiery demise.

The game is known for its extremely realistic simulation of spaceflight and orbital mechanics

The game is known for its extremely realistic simulation of spaceflight and orbital mechanics, with enterprising players being known to accidentally learn some advanced physics to succeed in the game. But one enterprising player, Jeff Rodgers, has taken Kerbal Space Program to the obvious extreme, with a custom-built control board meant to evoke the button-and-switch-filled panels of real-life spacecraft.

The rather impressive build features a 6-axis joystick for full 3D control of a Kerbal ship, along with plenty of buttons, toggles, flip-up missile switch covers, and analogue fuel gauges, all in a custom built chassis. The controls are all hooked up to an Arduino microcontroller board, which uses the inputs from the control board to trigger Python scripts, which are then input into Kerbal through the kRPC mod.

Full details of Rodger’s build can be found on his website, for anyone looking to follow in his footsteps and make their own mission control.