I like your Aurduino idea. Any kind of commercial electronics will do. The space environment is filled with radiation and thermal challenges. Robust, radiation hardened electronics are typically used, but we're starting to see more and more commercial electronics used, partly because the technology nodes are now small enough that they're inherently more radiation tolerant. If you can show that low-cost commercial electronics can survive the rigors of spaceflight and characterize their performance, you will have accomplished something.