Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe WMAP 3D Model

WMAP, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, launched in 2001 to measure temperature differences across the sky in the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the Big Bang. The model shows two back-to-back dish reflectors on top, the radiator panels and instrument box beneath them, the hexagonal spacecraft deck on struts, and the wide gold sunshield spread around the base.

Technical details: about 112,000 polygons and 335,000 vertices, with 61 colour materials and no image textures. Fine for desktop real-time; decimate it before mobile or VR use. It is scaled to 5 metres for AiZity's catalogue scale; the real spacecraft is about 5 metres across its sunshield.

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. AiZity cleaned up the original (centred, grounded and renamed the parts) and converted it to these formats.

Good for cosmology lessons, cosmic microwave background explainers, space telescope animations and planetarium shows.

License: Public domain, made by NASA/Christopher R. Meaney (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.