Ulysses Solar Polar Probe 3D Model

Ulysses, the joint ESA and NASA probe launched in 1990 that became the first spacecraft to fly over the Sun's poles: a compact gold box with its high-gain dish, a power source on a side arm, and very long wire antennas.

Technical details: about 7,000 polygons and 6,000 vertices, UV-mapped, with 11 materials and 10 texture maps; light enough for real-time and web use. It is scaled to 5 metres across the antennas for AiZity's catalogue scale, so the body is small; the viewer opens close on it.

The download includes GLB for web viewers and three.js, FBX for Unity, Unreal Engine and Maya, OBJ as a widely supported mesh, and BLEND for Blender. Textures come in a separate folder. AiZity cleaned up the original (centred, grounded and renamed the parts) and converted it to these formats.

Good for heliophysics lessons, solar system explainers and documentary graphics.

License: Public domain, made by NASA/Brian E. Kumanchik; NASA/Christian A. Lopez (a U.S. government work). Free for personal and commercial use; please credit NASA. NASA logos and insignia are not included, and use must not suggest NASA endorsement. The dish carries the ESA logo, so this model is marked for editorial use.