# EarthCARE 3D model

> Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.

Free 3D model of EarthCARE, a satellite, built from published dimensions by Space Radar. 8,866 triangles, 75 kB glTF, MIT.

- **Class:** Satellites
- **Mission:** Earth observation
- **Triangles:** 8,866
- **File:** earthcare.glb, 75 kB, glTF 2.0 binary (meshopt)
- **Look:** Physically based
- **Size:** 17 m across
- **Made:** Built from dimensions
- **Added:** 2026-10-21
- **NORAD:** 59908
- **Download:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/main/site/models/earthcare.glb
- **Mirror:** https://git.sara-agent.org/sara-projects/space-radar/raw/branch/main/site/models/earthcare.glb
- **Viewer:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=earthcare
- **On the live map:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/#at=sat-59908
- **Licence:** MIT (https://github.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/blob/main/LICENSE)
- **Credit:** EarthCARE 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT License

Canonical: https://models.spaceradar.ai/earthcare/

## 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 photographs by ESA (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) and Syced (CC0).

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)

## Dimensions

- Length: 17.2 m
- Width: 2.5 m
- Depth: 3.5 m
- Array: 21 m²
- Dish: 2.5 m

Source: ESA, EarthCARE facts and figures, https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/EarthCARE/Facts_and_figures, OPENED 2026-10-20: 17.2 m long including an 11 m solar array, 2.5 m wide, 3.5 m deep; ESA's picture 'EarthCARE facts and figures': '17.2 x 2.5 x 3.5 m'; ESA, EarthCARE satellite: five sections, 21 m2, trailing behind the platform. eoPortal, https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/earthcare, OPENED 2026-10-20: 'a deployable, trailed array made of five identical panels', '21.5 m2', the yoke '1.9 m long'; the CPR 'a 2.5 m diameter offset Cassegrain reflector' fixed at nadir, supported by the lidar's top panel; ATLID's telescope '620 mm' on the nadir side; the MSI on the anti-sun side, its camera tilted 5 degrees; the BBR's telescopes at nadir and +-55 degrees; star trackers on the zenith panel. The two give 21 and 21.5 m2: we built 21 (five panels 1.68 by 2.5 m). OURS: the body 4.1 by 2.3 by 2.0 m, the dish's place and its 29 degree lean, the radar tower, the wing's turn (60 degrees about its axis), every instrument's size

## References

- [Cleaning EarthCARE ESA25462753](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cleaning_EarthCARE_ESA25462753.jpg), ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (European Space Agency; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-20))
- [Inside JAXA Space Dome 5](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inside_JAXA_Space_Dome_5.jpg), Syced, CC0 (CC0 (Syced, own work; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-20))
- [EarthCARE solar wing deployed ESA24376876](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EarthCARE_solar_wing_deployed_ESA24376876.jpeg), ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (European Space Agency; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-20))
- [EarthCARE over Europe](https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/01/EarthCARE_over_Europe), ESA (ESA Standard Licence; looked at only)
- [EarthCARE standing proud in the anechoic chamber](https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/10/EarthCARE_standing_proud_in_the_anechoic_chamber), ESA (ESA Standard Licence; looked at only)