Yutu (Chang'e 3 rover)
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
Yutu (Chang'e 3 rover) 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 9,901 triangles in a 95 kB glTF file, and is 1.5 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 |
|---|---|
| Length | 1.5 m |
| Width | 1 m |
| Height | 1.1 m |
| Camera height | 1.5 m |
zh.wikipedia, '玉兔号月球车', OPENED 2026-10-20: '长1.5米，宽1米，高1.1米（太阳翼收拢状态）' (1.5 m long, 1 m wide, 1.1 m high with the panels folded); zh.wikipedia, '嫦娥四号', OPENED 2026-10-20: '实际安装了两台相机，高度1.5米，基线长270毫米' (two cameras, 1.5 m up, 270 mm apart); en.wikipedia 'Yutu-2': '1.5 × 1.0 × 1.0 m'. eoPortal, 'Chang'e-3', OPENED 2026-10-20: 'a six-wheeled main- and sub-rocker-bogie suspension system'; 'two rectangular solar panels that are locked on the top deck'; 'The high gain communications antenna and the imaging cameras are attached to the mast'; 'Each wheel has cleats'; the radar 'mounted on the underside'. OURS: the wheels 0.3 m across, the panels 0.94 x 0.62 m spread nearly flat, the dish 0.4 m across, every other size (read 2026-10-20)
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 pictures (IHEP/CAS, CC BY 4.0; CNSA/Siyu Zhang/Kevin M. Gill, CC BY 2.0).
The full record
built by this project in code (release 1.3.0 stage W3-c's scripts, one a craft, on W1-c'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 (CNSA publishes none under terms that allow a derivative, and NASA's 3D Resources and NASA Science's 3D models have none of these craft; read 2026-10-20)
Where the map uses it. the yutu landing site (registry/sites.yaml, new in this stage), where LROC's 2016 table puts Chang'e 3's rover: Yutu, its panels spread, its mast up. The same file is the shape of Yutu-2, which has no site of its own (no published place where it is now); public #1125
Licence note. CC BY 4.0 (the Institute of High Energy Physics' picture of Yutu on the Moon) and CC BY 2.0 (Yutu-2 photographed by its lander, CSNA/Siyu Zhang/Kevin M. Gill): looked at, with credit; nothing of them is in the file. The National Museum of China's full-size mock-up photographs are CC BY-SA 4.0 and were looked at only. The shape is this project's, under this repository's licence, built from published numbers (facts).
References 3
What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.
- Yutu roverIHEP/CASCC BY 4.0 (Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-20)
- ChangE-4, Yutu-2CNSA/Siyu Zhang/Kevin M. GillCC BY 2.0 (CSNA/Siyu Zhang/Kevin M. Gill; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-20)
- Yutu rover mockup at NMC 02ShujianyangCC BY-SA 4.0 (Shujianyang; Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-20)
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:
Yutu (Chang'e 3 rover) 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=yutu" title="Yutu (Chang'e 3 rover), 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
