October 29, 2025
Description
France was the third country to launch a satellite on its own rocket, on November 26, 1965. On top of the Diamant A launcher that lifted off from Hammaguir (Algeria) was the 42kg A-1 satellite, soon renamed “Astérix”.
Placed on a relatively high elliptical 527x1697km @ 34.3deg orbit, it is not expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere for several centuries.
You can find additional details on the mission at the following links:
The different pieces are designed for FDM printers and around a layer height of 0.2mm / nozzle diameter of 0.4mm. I use 2 perimeters with 15% cubic infill on all the pieces, no support is needed.
For each .3mf the color(s) are indicated as a prefix in the name and the number of copies as a suffix (e.g. for "SILVER-WHITE_EquatorialInstrument_x2.3mf”, 2 copies of the piece must be printed, with silver then white filament).
Half of the pieces are bicolor, and of course you can take advantage of an MMU/AMS if you have one, but you can also simply add filament changes directly in your slicer.
The pieces can be printed in 3 plates to minimize the color change numbers (and filament waste) and impression time, as described below:
This is the most complex one, and will need 10 to 15 color changes depending on the technique. Note that the main body pieces and the desk holder name tag are designed to be printed together to limit filament waste and printing time.
The assembly pin color does not matter (it is inside the model), so this piece can be used for flushing filament.
Color changes sequence:
On the upper side of the top piece, the two concentric rings can be either printed in silver (but on these 2 layers there are black parts on the pieces) or painted afterwards (best way if you use manual filament changes at certain layers)
Only 1 color change in this plate, starting with silver and then going to white at 4.40mm.
The umbilicals are printed at the same time since they are all silver and smaller than the other pieces pair.
Very straightforward, the only remaining piece being the desk support!
The model is not very heavy, so no need to particularly strengthen the piece.
For the antennas I used 4 pieces of 1mm diameter steel piano string of 47.5mm of length.
For the connection to the desk support I used a piece of 3mm diameter acrylic rod, but you can alternatively use any piece of metal, wood or probably even 3D print a rod (the model being lightweight).
Assembly is pretty straightforward, see below a little montage of how the different pieces are arranged with respect to each other:
Then just glue the name tag in front of the desk support, insert the 3mm rod and place Astérix on top and you are done!
The tolerances used are 0.2mm vertically and at least 0.07mm in-plane to provide a snug fit (keep that in mind if you want to re-scale the model!). If the tolerances are not accessible to your printer (or your printer is better tuned than mine 😉) you may have to use sandpaper or a hobby knife to adjust them until they fit and/or use glue.
License:
Creative Commons — Attribution — Share Alike
Valentin
