With Mars fever back again with the two MER rovers that have landed on the Red planet, thought I should send in these two photos of my Polar Lander model.

Carrying the first space mission equipment (the Mars Microphone - proposed by the late Carl Sagan) supplied by an independent group (The Planetary Society), the Mars Polar Lander would have recorded the sounds of the winds on Mars, had the robotic craft not failed. Fortunately, more Mars Microphones are planned for coming robotic space missions.

For the past two years I have seen some amazing paper models and wanted to give it a try. This was my first attempt -- the Sci-Kit Mars Polar Lander. I found the model on the Planetary Society's website store. At only three dollars (plus tax and shipping) it was big on fun, and a lot easier to assemble than I thought it would be. The only extra things I added were some gold foil to cover two open areas on the sides, some strengthening of the support legs with several coats of white glue, and the Plantary Society logo on the top deck.

Image: Undoctored image

Image: Other side