Biomass
Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.
Turn it in 3D
Open the 3D viewer (www.spaceradar.ai).
The viewer loads when you ask: about 700 kB the first time (three.js and the model), much less after.
Pictures 4
Three-quarter view
From the side
From behind
From above
About this model
Biomass is one of the 203 3D models Space Radar made itself: a satellite, built in code from published dimensions and photographs, with no image-to-3D generator and no one else’s mesh.
Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified. It has 10,210 triangles in a 94 kB glTF file, and is 12 m across at full scale.
On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for the object with NORAD catalogue number 63772, where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Reflector | 12 m |
| Boom | 7.5 m |
| Focal | 7.8 m |
| Array | 6.8 m² |
eoPortal, Biomass, eoportal.org/satellite-missions/biomass, OPENED 2026-10-20: '12 m circular projected aperture', the feed 'a 3 x 2 array of cavity-backed circular microstrip radiators, mounted on the -Y wall at the lower end of the satellite', 'Two pairs of radiators (upper and lower) are fed separately'. ESA, Biomass, The satellite, esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Biomass/The_sa…, OPENED 2026-10-20: the reflector 'just over 12 m across', '7.5-metre-long' boom, 'a three-piece boom', '6.8 m2 triple junction GaAs cells', the focal length '7.8 m'. eoPortal says 3 x 2 radiators; ESA's photograph of the flight model in the anechoic chamber shows two by two on the wall: we built two by two (the two fed pairs). OURS: the bus 1.3 by 1.2 by 3.4 m (read off the photographs against the people beside it), nine ribs (counted off ESA's pictures; the satellite's own picture of the opened reflector shows eight clearly), the reflector's tilt, the wing's panels 0.98 by 2.05 m, the 7.54 m the boom is drawn (read 2026-10-20)
How it was made
Built in code from published dimensions and photographs, with no image-to-3D generator and no one else’s mesh. 3D model: built by Space Radar from ESA's and eoPortal's published dimensions; compared with ESA's pictures (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO).
The full record
built by this project in code (release 1.3.0 stage W3-b's part library, lib.py and parts.py, and one script a craft, kept with the stage's notes in ~/space-radar-handoff/release-1.3/W3-b/build), from the cited dimensions and the pictures under `references`; no image-to-3D model was used, and no published mesh: NASA's 3D Resources and NASA Science have none of these craft; ESA publishes no model of them under terms that allow a derivative (its multimedia terms, the ESA Standard Licence, allow use for information and education, not an altered model); EUMETSAT publishes none (read 2026-10-20)
Where the map uses it. NORAD 63772, Biomass, ESA's P-band forest radar launched in April 2025: a tall gold bus with one wing of four panels, the radar's feed on its wall, and over it, on a 7.5 m boom, the 12 m mesh reflector that opens like an umbrella. It was the class shape of a satellite; public #956. Not NISAR's reflector, which is a ring of trusses
Licence note. No ESA picture or model is in the file. Looked at only: ESA's photographs and pictures under the ESA Standard Licence (named under `references`). Compared with, with credit: ESA's picture 'Biomass in orbit' and photograph 'Rolling Biomass to the cleanroom' (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, the first on esa.int, the second on Wikimedia Commons); nothing of them is in the file. The shape is this project's, under this repository's licence, built from published numbers (facts).
References 4
What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.
- Biomass in orbitESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGOCC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (ESA's page, read 2026-10-20)
- Rolling Biomass to the cleanroom ESA507406ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGOCC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (European Space Agency; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-20)
- Biomass in the anechoic chamberESAESA Standard Licence; looked at only
- Biomass antenna reflector deployedESAESA Standard Licence; looked at only
Use it
The model is under the MIT licence: use it, change it and share it, in any project, also a paid one. Keep the credit:
Biomass 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT LicenseAny glTF 2.0 loader that reads meshopt compression (EXT_meshopt_compression) opens the file: three.js with its MeshoptDecoder, Babylon.js, model-viewer. Tools such as glTF-Transform can write an uncompressed copy.
Or embed the viewer in your page:
<iframe src="https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=biomass" title="Biomass, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
