Wow! Seeing those pictures makes it obvious why they decided to add new electronics and lights instead of reusing the existing ones. Even with documentation that looks like it would be a real pain to interface with.
Looks like fun to me.
How many raspberry pi's would it approximately take to replace all these older electronics? I've seen an impressive LED matrix controlled by one raspberry pi, strobed to music and displayed low resolution images and videos. Thoughts?
A rpi + the driving circuits for the diodes would do the trick just fine. Actually a rpi might arguably be overpowered for such a task. This monument was inaugurated 6 years after Apollo 11, it's basically prehistorical as far as electronics are concerned.
Oh, so sad. Its looks like so much work went into the piece's computer. I wonder if anyone has done a blender (or whatever) animation of what the goal was. I would love to see it. Why on earth would they cement the wire in? bizarre. Put in a hollow tube so you can pull new wires in. That can't be a new idea. Still, great story.