About ICARUS

The "ICARUS initiative" is the abbreviation of the "International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space". ICARUS was founded in 2002 by an international consortium of scientists who realized the global lack of knowledge on dispersal and migration of small animals (bats, insects, songbirds).

Because politicians, health professionals and conservation managers request information about the large-scale movement of small, economically and ecologically important animals, the ICARUS scientists decided to solve this problem on a global scale. The only technologically possible solution appears to be a remote sensing platform in space.

Initially, the ICARUS group explored the installation of a radio receiver on the International Space Station. However, it soon turned out that a dedicated satellite would be needed. ICARUS consulted with world-renowned experts on radio wave propagation, particularly George Swenson, Jr., who previously headed the construction of the Very Large Array, a major radio telescope array in the US. His calculations of the signal transmission budget from a radio transmitter towards a low orbiting satellite turned out positive, providing the technological basis for a global small-animals tracking solution.

During spring 2006, the Princeton University aerospace engineering design class expanded on the satellite design ideas and produced a phase-A plan for a single, low-orbit satellite (HERMES).