# Curiosity's entry capsule 3D model

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

Free 3D model of Curiosity's entry capsule, a crewed craft or station, built from published dimensions by Space Radar. 6,236 triangles, 60 kB glTF, MIT.

- **Class:** Stations and crewed craft
- **Mission:** Planetary science
- **Triangles:** 6,236
- **File:** msl-entry.glb, 60 kB, glTF 2.0 binary (meshopt)
- **Look:** Physically based
- **Size:** 4.5 m across
- **Made:** Built from dimensions
- **Added:** 2026-11-04
- **Download:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/main/site/models/msl-entry.glb
- **Mirror:** https://git.sara-agent.org/sara-projects/space-radar/raw/branch/main/site/models/msl-entry.glb
- **Viewer:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=msl-entry
- **Licence:** MIT (https://github.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/blob/main/LICENSE)
- **Credit:** Curiosity's entry capsule 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT License

Canonical: https://models.spaceradar.ai/msl-entry/

## 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's published dimensions and NASA/JPL photographs (public domain).

built by this project in code (tools/msl-builder/, release 1.7.9: msl.py); NO published 3D model of the aeroshell under a free licence was found (read 2026-11-03): NASA 3D Resources' file listing (the GitHub tree of nasa/NASA-3D-Resources) has the Curiosity rover (MSL) and the InSight cruise lander and stage, and nothing of MSL's aeroshell, cruise stage or descent stage; science.nasa.gov/3d-resources has the same; the MSL sky crane on Free3D is a third party's file with no licence read, so it was not used

## Dimensions

- Diameter: 4.5 m
- Height: 2.63 m

Source: NASA/JPL, Mars Science Laboratory Landing press kit, July 2012 (Wikimedia Commons, File:MSL_Press_Kit.pdf, public domain; opened 2026-11-03): 'Cruise vehicle dimensions (cruise stage and aeroshell with rover and descent stage inside): Diameter: 14 feet, 9 inches (4.5 meters); height: 9 feet, 8 inches (3 meters)'; 'the heat shield (14.8 feet, or 4.5 meters)'; 'the back shell jettisons two solid-tungsten weights'; 'a set of six weights ... about 55 pounds (25 kilograms)'. NOT PUBLISHED IN WHAT WAS READ, read off the photographs against the 4.5 m: the sphere-cone's 70 degree half angle (the usual for Mars aeroshells, an assumption) and 0.75 m depth, a nose radius of 0.6 m, the 0.1 m rim lip, the back shell's 1.45 m height and its 0.95 m top plate, the canister's 0.72 m radius and 0.3 m height (the whole 2.63 m is 0.37 m short of the press kit's 3 m, which includes the cruise stage's ring), the twelve plugs of 0.23 m, the hatch of 0.62 by 0.52 m, the four thruster windows. THE HEAT SHIELD'S 113 TILES are an assumption of count (about a hundred here): the layout is read off no picture. Colours are read off the photographs: the white paint, the charcoal tiles.

## References

- [Msl capsule cruiseStage.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Msl_capsule_cruiseStage.jpg), NASA/JPL-Caltech (Public domain (NASA/JPL-Caltech; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-03))
- [MSL Capsule.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MSL_Capsule.jpg), NASA/JPL-Caltech (Public domain (NASA/JPL-Caltech; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-03))
- [Curiosity Inside Aeroshell, Artist's Concept.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Curiosity_Inside_Aeroshell,_Artist%27s_Concept.jpg), NASA/JPL-Caltech (Public domain (NASA/JPL-Caltech; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-03))