Specialists of RSC Energia and Max Plank Institute for Ornithology (Germany) started integrated tests of ICARUS science hardware to study migrations of wild animals and birds.

The first phase covers tests of the training model of ICARUS hardware for testing cosmonauts actions during extravehicular activity (EVA) and installation of the hardware on the ISS Russian Segment. After testing the training model will be installed in Yu.A. Gagarin CTC neutral buoyancy laboratory.

The delivery of the science hardware for the joint Russian-German experiment ICARUS (International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space) to study migrations of wild animals and birds to the International Space Station is scheduled in 2017.

The hardware consists of the electronic unit, interfaces, and receiving and transmitting antennas to be installed on the external surface of the Service Module Zvezda of the ISS Russian Segment. The antennas will be mounted during a dedicted six-hour EVA.

The experiment ICARUS is distinctive in that it will allow to test onboard the ISS and subsequently transfer to satellites the technology of tracking animals much smaller in weight as compared to those which can be tracked by the French system Argos (Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite) widely used by scientists from different countries. This will be possible due to the fact that the weight of each ICARUS module attached to animals and birds will not exceed five grams. This module combines GLONASS/GPS receiver, radio receiver and radio transmitter, storage battery, solar array, temperature and acceleration sensors.

RSC Energy has been working on the ICARUS Project since 2010 in the frame of the space experiment URAGAN (the primary investigator is Professor Mikhail Belyaev, Doctor of Sciences (Engineering), RSC Energia) and scientific cooperation agreement with German scientists. In November 2014 Roscosmos and DLR (German Aerospace Center) agreement was signed on the implementation of this project on the Russian Segment of the ISS. SC Roscosmos, Institute of Geography of RAS, DLR, Max Planck Institute of Ornithology and German company SpaceTech are participating in preparation of the experiment.