Installation of the ICARUS antenna on the ISSSpaceX Transporter-15 rideshare mission with the GENA-OT satellite carrying an ICARUS instrument
The ICARUS Initiative (International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space) is an international effort to track the migratory patterns of small flying animals using radio transmitters. The project began in 2002. The first tracking system operated on the International Space Station (ISS) between 2020 and 2022.[1] The second system (ICARUS 2.0[2]) consists of receivers aboard multiple uncrewed low Earth orbit satellites, first of which was launched in 2025.[3] The project is led by Martin Wikelski, director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Radolfzell and a professor of ornithology at the University of Konstanz.[4]
Since the late 1980s animal tracking via satellite has been accomplished through the use of the Argos system, which was historically limited to larger animals.[5] One major hurdle to tracking the movements of birds and especially insects is creating a transmitter small enough to place on individual animals. The ICARUS project currently implements 5g radio transmitters that include a GPS receiver, but has plans to use devices weighing less than 1g in the future. Since the ICARUS system is located on lower orbits than Argos (ISS is orbiting 370-460km[6] and GENA-OT 520km[7] from the Earth's surface instead of 850km like the Argos satellites), the ICARUS trackers do not have to create as strong of a radio signal and can therefore be smaller.[8] The transmitter tags are solar-powered and only activate when a satellite passes over them.[9][10]
Applications
The primary purpose of the ICARUS Initiative is to greatly expand available data on animal migrations for the sake of conservation, although a variety of other fields of study may be advanced by the project's information gathering. Studying the movements of birds and insects may further scientists' understanding of how natural hazards and human interactions affect animal populations. Another application for the data collected by ICARUS is to investigate a possible link between unusual animal movements and impending earthquakes. It has long been hypothesized that some birds and bats can predict earthquakes because of their ability to detect shifts in magnetic fields, but so far the only evidence to support this has been anecdotal.[11] The project's migratory data may also provide greater insight into the propagation of animal-borne diseases like SARS, bird flu, and West Nile virus.[9]
History
The installation of the necessary hardware on the Russian segment of the International Space Station was completed in 2018.[12] However, a defect in the ICARUS computer system meant it had to be returned to Earth, fixed, and transported back to the station in 2019. Testing for the monitoring system began in March 2020[13] and scientific operations officially started in September.[14] Data transmissions from the ISS were terminated on 3March 2022 when the collaboration between Germany and Russia was cancelled after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[15][1][16]
On 28 November 2025, the first ICARUS 2.0 instrument was launched aboard the ESA-supported technology demonstration satellite GENA-OT developed by the German company OroraTech.[2] One more receiver is expected to launch in 2026[3] and by 2027, a constellation of six receivers is expected to be operational in low Earth orbit.[17]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
