Even though it's got nothing to do with what I pitched to the magazine. But they do want pictures...
It's the height of Madison Avenue technique; give them a lot of hype about interstellar aliens, and then show them pictures of pogo sticks, solar panels, “D” cells, shoelaces, can openers, eggbeaters, clothespins, and shoehorns.
It would be rather a challenge to describe those things so the aliens could manufacture them, eh?