# Mariner 2 3D model

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

Free 3D model of Mariner 2, a deep-space probe, built from published dimensions by Space Radar. 5,398 triangles, 45 kB glTF, MIT.

- **Class:** Deep-space probes
- **Mission:** Planetary science
- **Triangles:** 5,398
- **File:** mariner-2.glb, 45 kB, glTF 2.0 binary (meshopt)
- **Look:** Flat colours
- **Size:** 5.0 m across
- **Made:** Built from dimensions
- **Added:** 2026-11-03
- **Download:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/main/site/models/mariner-2.glb
- **Mirror:** https://git.sara-agent.org/sara-projects/space-radar/raw/branch/main/site/models/mariner-2.glb
- **Viewer:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=mariner-2
- **On the live map:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/#at=deep-mariner-2
- **Licence:** MIT (https://github.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/blob/main/LICENSE)
- **Credit:** Mariner 2 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT License

Canonical: https://models.spaceradar.ai/mariner-2/

## 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 NASA NSSDCA's published dimensions and NASA/JPL's pictures of Mariner 2 (public domain).

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 on GitHub, 1 583 paths, and science.nasa.gov/3d-resources, read 2026-11-03: none of this craft)

## Dimensions

- Base across: 1.04 m
- Base thick: 0.36 m
- Height: 3.66 m
- Span: 5.05 m
- Wing width: 0.76 m
- Wing long: 1.83 m
- Wing short: 1.52 m
- Dacron: 0.31 m
- Radiometer dish: 0.48 m

Source: NASA NSSDCA, 'Mariner 2', https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1962-041A, OPENED 2026-11-03: 'a hexagonal base, 1.04 meters across and 0.36 meters thick'; 'a tall pyramid-shaped mast on which the science experiments were mounted which brought the total height of the spacecraft to 3.66 meters'; 'rectangular solar panel wings with a total span of 5.05 meters and width of 0.76 meters'; 'one 183 cm by 76 cm and the other 152 cm by 76 cm (with a 31 cm dacron extension (a solar sail) to balance the solar pressure on the panels)'; 'Attached by an arm to one side of the base and extending below the spacecraft was a large directional dish antenna'; 'a cylindrical omnidirectional antenna at the top of the instrument mast'; 'two command antennas, one on the end of either solar panel'; 'a monopropellant (anhydrous hydrazine) 225 N retro-rocket' and 'four jet vanes situated below the thrust chamber'; 'A magnetometer was attached to the top of the mast below the omnidirectional antenna. Particle detectors were mounted halfway up the mast, along with the cosmic ray detector. A cosmic dust detector and solar plasma spectrometer detector were attached to the top edges of the spacecraft base. A microwave radiometer and an infrared radiometer and the radiometer reference horns were rigidly mounted to a 48 cm diameter parabolic radiometer antenna mounted near the bottom of the mast.' JPL Horizons' header for -2 (OPENED 2026-11-03) gives the same figures. DERIVED: each wing stands off the base on a yoke 0.175 m long, the 0.35 m that 5.05 m leaves after the base, the two panels and the extension. NOT CITED, read off JPL's pictures: the mast's taper (0.60 m across at its foot, 0.14 m at its top) and its five bays, the high-gain antenna's size (0.8 m across, an ESTIMATE from the drawing: no page opened gives it) and its ring-and-spoke look, the places of the louvers, the shield and the covers, the sizes of the detectors, sensors and horns, and where along the 3.66 m the engine's bell ends (z = -0.55 m).

## References

- [Mariner 2](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mariner_2.jpg), NASA/JPL (Public domain (NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, PIA04594; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-03))
- [Diagram of Mariner 1 and 2 with Atlas-Agena launch vehicle](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diagram_of_Mariner_1_and_2_with_Atlas-Agena_launch_vehicle.jpg), NASA/JPL (Public domain (NASA/JPL; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-03))
- [Model of Mariner 2 spacecraft (GRC-1964-C-70182)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Model_of_Mariner_2_spacecraft_(GRC-1964-C-70182).jpg), NASA (Public domain (NASA Glenn Research Center; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-03))