# GCOM-W 3D model

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

Free 3D model of GCOM-W, a satellite, built from published dimensions by Space Radar. 9,956 triangles, 66 kB glTF, MIT.

- **Class:** Satellites
- **Mission:** Earth observation
- **Triangles:** 9,956
- **File:** gcom-w.glb, 66 kB, glTF 2.0 binary (meshopt)
- **Look:** Physically based
- **Size:** 18 m across
- **Made:** Built from dimensions
- **Added:** 2026-10-27
- **NORAD:** 38337
- **Download:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/main/site/models/gcom-w.glb
- **Mirror:** https://git.sara-agent.org/sara-projects/space-radar/raw/branch/main/site/models/gcom-w.glb
- **Viewer:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=gcom-w
- **On the live map:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/#at=sat-38337
- **Licence:** MIT (https://github.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/blob/main/LICENSE)
- **Credit:** GCOM-W 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT License

Canonical: https://models.spaceradar.ai/gcom-w/

## 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 JAXA's published dimensions and photographs of JAXA's 1/50 model by Syced (CC0).

built by this project in code (the private tool model-from-images: assemble.py, from a yaml of primitives), from the cited dimensions and the pictures under `references`; no image-to-3D model was used, and no published mesh (NASA's 3D Resources, 1 583 paths read 2026-10-26, and NASA Science's resources have none of this craft; the agency pages were searched, and no agency model of it under usable terms was found); no JAXA picture or model is in the file: JAXA's figures and artist's view (eoPortal) were looked at, and a visitor's CC0 photographs of JAXA's 1/50 model at Tsukuba were the layout's reference

## Dimensions

- X: 5.1 m
- Y: 17.5 m
- Z: 3.4 m
- Mass: 1991 kg
- Power: 4.05 kW
- Reflector: 2 m

Source: eoPortal, https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/gcom, OPENED 2026-10-26: 'The spacecraft on-orbit dimensions are (deployed configuration): 5.1 m (X) x 17.5 m (Y) x 3.4 m (Z). The spacecraft has a mass of about 1991 kg at launch (dry bus mass of 1324 kg, propellant mass of 151 kg, AMSR2 mass of 405 kg).' Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCOM-W, OPENED 2026-10-26: 'By rotating a disc antenna (diameter 2.0 m) in 1.5 s period, it scans the Earth surface along an arc of 1450 km length.' OURS: every size inside the envelope (the bus 1.5 x 2.8 x 1.5 m, the deck 2.5 x 3.4 m, the sensor unit, the truss, the paddles' 3.5 x 3.4 m of two by two panels), read off JAXA's pictures and the 1/50 model's proportions.

## References

- [Spacecraft models at Tsukuba Space Center 11.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spacecraft_models_at_Tsukuba_Space_Center_11.jpg), Syced (Wikimedia Commons) (CC0 (Syced; read 2026-10-26))
- [Artefacts at Tsukuba Space Center exhibition hall 22.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Artefacts_at_Tsukuba_Space_Center_exhibition_hall_22.jpg), Syced (Wikimedia Commons) (CC0 (Syced; read 2026-10-26))