Autonomous formation flying in the traffic

With the rapid growth of operational satellites and debris in congested areas, such as Low Earth Orbit, moving in the traffic is becoming key also due to new regulations potentially coming into play. This paper presents a selection of current guidelines that can play a major role in small satellite mission design and presents the Delfi-Twin mission, conceived to demonstrate Space Traffic Management capabilities. The mission s made by two small satellites which will operate as a formation using differential drag as control strategy. On-board orbit determination will be employed to speed-up the availability of high-accuracy ephemeris and improve their dissemination to other operators. Miniaturized commercial receivers have been evaluated in an emulated orbital scenario to assess the performances of future on-board orbit determination system, providing some insights on existing problems related to commercial receivers not designed for operating in space.