# IXPE 3D model

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

Free 3D model of IXPE, a space telescope, built from published dimensions by Space Radar. 7,516 triangles, 50 kB glTF, MIT.

- **Class:** Space telescopes
- **Mission:** Astronomy
- **Triangles:** 7,516
- **File:** ixpe.glb, 50 kB, glTF 2.0 binary (meshopt)
- **Look:** Flat colours
- **Size:** 5.2 m across
- **Made:** Built from dimensions
- **Added:** 2026-10-13
- **NORAD:** 49954
- **Download:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/main/site/models/ixpe.glb
- **Mirror:** https://git.sara-agent.org/sara-projects/space-radar/raw/branch/main/site/models/ixpe.glb
- **Viewer:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=ixpe
- **On the live map:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/#at=sat-49954
- **Licence:** MIT (https://github.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/blob/main/LICENSE)
- **Credit:** IXPE 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT License

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

## 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 published dimensions and NASA illustrations of IXPE.

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 NASA pictures under `references`; no image-to-3D model was used, and no published mesh (NASA's 3D Resources, science.nasa.gov/3d-resources and github.com/nasa/NASA-3D-Resources, searched 2026-10-13, has none of this craft)

## Dimensions

- Length: 5.2 m
- Bus diameter: 1.1 m
- Array span: 2.7 m
- Focal length: 4 m
- Optics diameter: 0.3 m
- Boom canister: 0.3 m

Source: eoPortal, https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/ixpe, opened 2026-10-13: 'When deployed, IXPE is 5.2 m from the bottom of the spacecraft structure to the top of the payload and is 1.1 m in diameter. The solar panels span 2.7 m when deployed.'; 'The spacecraft hexagonal structure is built up from machined aluminum plates'; 'comprises a 4-m-focal length Mirror Module Assembly'; '24 concentrically nested X-ray-mirror shells in each 300-mm-diameter optics module'; 'The three IXPE MMAs are mounted to a MMSS (Metallic Mirror Module Support Structure) deck'; the deck 'interfaces with the coilable, deployable boom through a TTR (Tip/Tilt/Rotation) mechanism'; the boom stows 'into a 12-inch (0.3-meter) canister'; 'The deployable boom is covered with a thermal sock'; 'The payload uses a deployable X-ray shield to prevent off-axis X-rays from striking the detectors'. NOT CITED, read off NASA's two pictures: the bus's 0.75 m height, the mirror modules' 0.7 m length and where the three stand, the array's 1.5 m height and its six strips, the detector units' size, the shields' 0.5 m, the boom's 0.24 m side and 12 bays

## References

- [IXPE spacecraft model](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IXPE_spacecraft_model.png), NASA (Public domain (NASA))
- [IXPE artist rendition](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IXPE-artist-rendition.jpg), NASA (Public domain (NASA))