# Venera 9 3D model

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

Free 3D model of Venera 9, a lander or rover, built from published dimensions by Space Radar. 24,936 triangles, 214 kB glTF, MIT.

- **Class:** Landers and rovers
- **Mission:** Landers and rovers
- **Triangles:** 24,936
- **File:** venera-9.glb, 214 kB, glTF 2.0 binary (meshopt)
- **Look:** Flat colours
- **Size:** 2.4 m across
- **Made:** Built from dimensions
- **Added:** 2026-11-05
- **Download:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/main/site/models/venera-9.glb
- **Mirror:** https://git.sara-agent.org/sara-projects/space-radar/raw/branch/main/site/models/venera-9.glb
- **Viewer:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=venera-9
- **Licence:** MIT (https://github.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/blob/main/LICENSE)
- **Credit:** Venera 9 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT License

Canonical: https://models.spaceradar.ai/venera-9/

## 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 the replica in Kaluga (Stolbovsky, CC BY 4.0; DonSimon, CC BY 4.0).

built by this project in code (tools/venera-builder/venera.py, on release 1.5.0's part library), from the cited dimensions and the pictures under `references`; no image-to-3D model was used, and no published mesh (NASA's 3D Resources, 1 199 files read 2026-11-05, has no Venera; NASA Science and Roscosmos publish none that was found; the agency pages were searched, and no agency model of it under usable terms was found)

## Dimensions

- Ball: 1 m
- Pressure vessel: 0.8 m
- Ring: 1.8 m
- Drag plate: 2.2 m
- Cylinder: 0.84 m
- Height: 2 m
- Landing mass: 660 kg
- Entry sphere: 2.4 m
- Legs: 18

Source: Schroeder, Bayandor and Samareh, 'Impact and crashworthiness characteristics of Venera type landers for future Venus missions' (AIAA; NASA NTRS 20170002533, https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20170002533), OPENED 2026-11-05: the payload module was 'roughly one meter in diameter' with an '80 cm diameter pressure vessel'; there were '18 legs that connected the payload module to the impact ring'; the impact ring was 'a hollow metallic ring' (a torus) 'perforating' holes in its skin; the lander entered 'encapsulated in a 2.4 m spherical heat shield'; the paper's preliminary design has the ring's radius at 0.9 m and the payload 0.65 m above it; the four parts are the parachute capsule and drag plate, the payload module, the legs and the impact ring. Wikipedia, 'Venera 9', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_9, OPENED 2026-11-05: the surface payload 660 kg; 'the ring was partly crushed upon touchdown'; the ring-shaped aerodynamic shield; two lens covers; the instrument list. The pages give no height, no drag plate and no cylinder size, so OURS: every other size, read off the photographs of the 1:1 replica with the ball's one metre as the ruler and the 2.4 m shell as the check (the drag plate 2.2 m, which is what fits in the shell; the cylinder 0.84 m across and 0.6 m tall; the whole 2.0 m high), about ten per cent. The paper's 2.15 m drag plate radius is its own preliminary figure and does not fit the 2.4 m shell, so it is not used. THE CYLINDER IS DRAWN AS THE REPLICAS SHOW IT: what it was on the real craft (an antenna housing or the parachute capsule) is not given by the pages read

## References

- [Venera 9 Space Probe 01](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Venera_9_Space_Probe_01.jpg), Stolbovsky (CC BY 4.0 (Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-05))
- [Venera 9 Space Probe 02](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Venera_9_Space_Probe_02.jpg), Stolbovsky (CC BY 4.0 (Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-05))
- [Kaluga Wikiexpedition (2016-06-11) 0139](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kaluga_Wikiexpedition_(2016-06-11)_0139.jpg), DonSimon (CC BY 4.0 (Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-05))
- [Moscow. VDNKh. Pavillion 32 Cosmos. Venera 9 Lander P5293259 2645](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Moscow._VDNKh._Pavillion_32_Cosmos._Venera_9_Lander_P5293259_2645.jpg), Alexxx1979 (CC BY-SA 4.0 (Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-05))
- [Cut-away model of a Soviet Venera 12 lander](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cut-away_model_of_a_Soviet_Venera_12_lander.jpg), Don S. Montgomery, U.S. Navy (Ret.) (Public domain (U.S. Navy; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-05))
- [Foto de Venera 9](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Foto_de_Venera_9.png), Ted Stryk (Public domain (Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-05))