The team of travel bugs started their quest on Norwegian Constitution Day (17 May) 2005.

Incoherent Scatter Radars are powerful and effective devices for studying the Earth's upper atmosphere, but there are very few of them in the world. The nine travel bugs together complete a picture of the main feed of the largest antenna at the Svalbard Radar and the completed puzzle will eventually be displayed in the main radar building.

Since the travel bug team set out, a new radar, the AMISR, has started operating at Poker Flat in Alaska, and we are planning to release an additional travel bug into the starting cache when the sun returns to Svalbard.

Details of the whereabouts of the nine current travel bugs are updated on this page from time to time; for the latest details, maps of their progress around the World, and logs of their travels, please see the individual travel bug pages (referenced at the bottom of this page). Information about EISCAT and the other Incoherent Scatter radars can be found through links on the menu bar above.

Updated 20 July 2008

The first Travel Bug Team member, the Millstone_Messenger, left the 'Too Parabolic' starting cache on 27 June 2005 and reached the 'Beacon by Belmont' cache, in Illinois, on 24 July. Unfortunately, a note posted in March 2006 (thanks!) reported that the cache was probably muggled soon after it arrived and it seems that the TB is lost. A replacement was let loose in Mondo's Bug Hotel, just outside Denver airport, from which it was quickly collected, 4483 miles from home. Unfortunately, the replacement TB itself went missing and after attempts to trace it failed, we started a new travel bug, Millstone_messenger II, in July 2007. Amazingly, that also went missing for a rather long time, but it is believed to be currently in the Tele - Phoney GC13ZD7) cache in Utah, USA, 4746 miles into its journey.

The next to leave, the Kharkov_Messenger, left on 25 July 2005. It arrived safely in Austria, 2600 miles and thirteen caches along its way to the Ukraine but came to a halt at Zurich airport, Switzerland, where it got lost during security checks on 19 February, 2007. It was placed in a TB graveyard, but was found and resurrrected before we started the spare tag travelling. 3126 miles travelled so far.

The Arecibo_Messenger left Svalbard on 29 September 2005 and is currently touring Massachusetts, having already travelled 4783 miles.

The Sondrestrom_Messenger also left Svalbard on 29 September 2005. It has been in Texas, and passed through Germany on its way to Ireland and from there to Holland. Having passed its target on Greenland twice, it is presently in the UK and probably needs to head for Copenhagen, where it might get a flight to Greenland. 14493 miles travelled

The MU_Messenger left Svalbard on 14 December 2005 and is now in Seoul, South Korea, on its journey to Japan. 16686 miles travelled, more miles than any of the other team members.

The other team members left the 'Too Parabolic' cache on Svalbard on 13 June 2006 and arrived at Mondo's Bug Hotel, just outside Denver airport, on 25 June.

The ALTAIR_Messenger has visited Peru and is now back in the USA from where it may be able to get a ride to the Pacific islands. 15322 miles travelled. We updated the ALTAIR_Messenger's target cache having discovered that there is a cache closer to the Altair radar (less than a mile away even) than we thought.

Meanwhile, the EAR_Messenger is also in the USA. 6213 miles travelled.

The Irkutsk_Messenger has been to California, and is now in Prague, Czech Republic, where it might have a ride towards eastern Russia. 6213 miles travelled.

Finally, the Jicamarca_Messenger is in Florida on its way to Peru. 7818 miles travelled.

Total distance traveled by the team so far: 84707 miles.