[X] My Assistant

[Airbag]

I was at NEAF yesterday and happened to come across this tiny (about 1 inch across) but very detailed scale model of a Viking lander (complete with small "Martian soil base"), fact sheet and "collectors cards". The package also included a small dark green glass sphere (marble sized); purpose unknown. Maybe it *is* just a marble! This was just one in a series of miniatures of various spacecraft so maybe aimed at kids but this Viking lander was by far the best of the ones they had there and believe me I looked all over.




Also had the brands "Arclight" and "Kaiyodo" on the back of the box.

Unrelated, some booths were also selling tiny fragments of purported Moon rock and Mars rock (via meteorites) for $35-$50 a fleck. Seemed neat, but I didn't buy any as how would you ever know it was really what it claimed it was?

Airbag

PS NEAF was very good as usual!

[vk3ukf]

Hi tty, thanks for the name on the Japanese rocket plane, it escaped me at the time, certainly an interesting bit of history. I would love to have seen to look on the pilots of those things when they took them up for the first time, or nearby witnesses of one leaping into the sky with a roar.