Mars 3
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
Mars 3 is one of the 203 3D models Space Radar made itself: a lander or rover, 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 8,256 triangles in a 73 kB glTF file, and is 2.9 m across at full scale.
It is part of the map’s library; no object on the live map is drawn with it today.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Sphere diameter | 1.2 m |
| Braking cone | 2.9 m |
| Lander mass | 1210 kg |
| Capsule mass | 358 kg |
Wikipedia, 'Mars 3', en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_3, OPENED 2026-10-26: 'It consisted of a spherical 1.2 m diameter landing capsule, a 2.9 m diameter conical aerodynamic braking shield, a parachute system and retro-rockets'; 'The landing capsule had four triangular petals which would open after landing, righting the spacecraft and exposing the instrumentation'; 'Four aerials protruded from the top of the sphere'; 'two television cameras with a 360 degree view'; the lander mass 1,210 kg and the capsule's 358 kg. The 'PrOP-M' page names a 4.5 kg ski rover carried and 'never deployed'. OURS: every other size, read off the photographs of the 1:1 mock-up with the 1.2 m as the ruler (the petals 0.98 m long and 0.96 m wide at the hinge, opened 62 degrees below the horizontal; the belt; the aerials 1.15 m; the instrument box 0.32 by 0.40 m; the camera tubes), about 10 to 15 percent. THE PETALS' ANGLE is OURS (the mock-ups show them open; how far they opened on Mars is not known) (read 2026-10-26)
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 photographs of museum models (Armael, CC0; Museum of Cosmonautics, CC0; Stolbovsky, CC BY 4.0).
The full record
built by this project in code (release 1.4.0 stage r14-m8's scripts, one a craft, on release 1.3.0's part library, kept with the stage's notes), 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, science.nasa.gov/3d-resources, 377 entries, and NASA Science's 3D-type resources have none of these craft; Lavochkin publishes none; read 2026-10-26)
Where the map uses it. the mars-3 landing site (registry/sites.yaml), Ptolemaeus crater on Mars, at HiRISE's image centre where amateur searchers found what may be the lander, its parachute and its heat shield: the Mars 3 landing capsule, its four petals open. It was the generic lander, which is still what is drawn while this file is on its way; public #1132
Licence note. CC0 (Armael's photographs of the 1:1 mock-up in the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics; the Museum's photograph of its model; Krassotkin's) and CC BY 4.0 (Stolbovsky's of the copy in Kaluga) and Public domain (NASA's pictures of the models): looked at, with credit; nothing of them is in the file. Photographs of replicas under CC BY-SA were looked at only. The shape is this project's, under this repository's licence, built from published numbers (facts). NO LOGO AND NO LETTERING is on the mesh.
References 6
What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.
- FP2A3620 (23497688248)Музей КосмонавтикиCC0 (Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-26)
- Mars 3 (MMA 2011) (1)ArmaelCC0 (Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-26)
- Mars 3 (MMA 2011) (2)ArmaelCC0 (Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-26)
- Mars 3 Space Probe 1StolbovskyCC BY 4.0 (Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-26)
- Mars3 lander2 vsmNASAPublic domain (NASA; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-26)
- PrOP-MJoris WegnerCC BY-SA 4.0 (Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-26)
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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:
Mars 3 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=mars-3" title="Mars 3, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
