AetherFlow

AetherFlow is a CubeSat telemetry project that emulates spacecraft subsystems, transports their telemetry over a custom CAN protocol, and visualizes it in an Open MCT ground dashboard.

Goal: show how emulated CubeSat telemetry moves through сustom AetherFlow CAN protocol into Open MCT ground dashboard.

eps_emulator -> SocketCAN vcan0 -> bridge_service -> HTTP/WebSocket -> Open MCT dashboard

Runtime components

• aetherflow/ — App launcher that starts and monitors backend child processes.
• eps_emulator/ — EPS emulator with dynamic battery/solar model and fault injection.
• bridge_service/ — SocketCAN bridge, AetherFlow CAN Protocol reassembly, EPS telemetry decoder, HTTP/WebSocket API.
• openmct/ — dashboard frontend.
• compat/ — committed AetherFlow CAN Protocol golden vectors.

Detailed subsystem documentation:

• bridge_service/README.md
• eps_emulator/README.md
• compat/README.md

Requirements

Linux with SocketCAN support:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y iproute2 python3 python3-venv nodejs npm

Optional CAN debugging tools:

sudo apt-get install -y can-utils

Python virtual environment

Setup vcan0

sudo modprobe vcan
sudo ip link add dev vcan0 type vcan
sudo ip link set up vcan0

Check:

ip link show vcan0

Start the full application:

python -m aetherflow

App launcher starts:

python -m bridge_service
python -m eps_emulator

Open:

http://127.0.0.1:8080/