If you want to lights/buttons. Go to Radio Shack. They should have enough different buttons & lights for your project. Some light up, some flash, some are square, others are round - you get the idea.
If you don't know anything about simple circuitry - pick up a good book on basic electronics while you are there. Or buy one at a bookstore - whatever - just get one. You'd be surprised what kind of ideas a good book can give you. Even those "science fair" type books are great. Remember - there is no shame in not thinking of the obvious... We take things for granted and forget the simplest thing like switching on a flashlight can be used as an effect.
Maybe you can find cool seats at a flea/farmers market or Goodwill. The walls I'd make out of spray painted cardboard boxes. Just go to a store and ask them for their boxes. What to do is stack the boxes and make walls out of the bottom. Then, reinforce the boxes inside with another box shoved in tilted and closed up the top. This will also be easier to for you to stick compartments and such in to the wall. It doesn't look as cheesy as you might think. If you want you can wallpaper it, then spray pain it so there aren't any lines. You can also alwayscheck out Home Depot for your interior and look at the 1/4" thick plywood and those 2" x 1" wood strips for your framing and inner walls. You may want to paint walls with a quality primer first prior to painting your final coat (to hide the wood grain). Home Depot will cut/saw your boards for free (the first 2 to 3 cuts I believe - check with them first). For the lights try the xmas lights section of the hardware section, they may be on sale - look for the small blinking ones, just drill small holes on wall surface and plug with lights! For buttons, pill bottle caps, candy such as "Chicklets" or "M&M" makes great and cheap details and they are yummy to eat.
An excellent 'role model' for this is the fighter cockpit depicted in Star Wars. Here the astronauts huddle closely together while they manipulate the flight controls. To capture this sort of claustrophobia, seat your actors on chairs with a few flashing lights on a panel in front of them. Then, with some gear at the back, record the action in near darkness--without overhead light, the scene is more dramatic.
Feature the actors in close-up as they strain to see what's outside the observation window. Flash some indicator lights so they light up the sweat on the actors' faces--and don't forget the urgent bleeps from a warning speaker.
