Open-source 1U CubeSat engineering model for attitude determination and control (ADCS) research.
Designed, built and tested by Filippo Odorico · VDX Research
HELIOS is a ground testbed that reproduces, at small scale and low cost, how real satellites point themselves in space. A reaction wheel rotates the spacecraft by conservation of angular momentum, sun sensors on each face find the light source, and a LoRa link connects the onboard computer to a browser-based ground station.
Status: 🛠️ Hardware in fabrication · firmware and simulation in development
- Safe mode – wheel stopped, telemetry only
- Detumbling – stops an induced rotation autonomously
- Sun pointing – tracks a light source with the sun sensors
- Target pointing – reaches and holds an attitude commanded from the ground station
| Folder | Content |
|---|---|
hardware/ |
Parametric CAD (CadQuery), STL and STEP files, print settings |
firmware/ |
Onboard computer and ground station firmware (Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V3) |
ground-station/ |
Web dashboard for telemetry and telecommands |
simulation/ |
Dynamic model and controller design (Python) |
docs/ |
Design notes, test reports, research |
Hardware: CERN-OHL-P-2.0 · Software: MIT · Documentation: CC BY 4.0