planet - Assets not available via API

I am attempting to download a bunch of 4 band basic scene data, the search returns results, however, the asset link is just an empty dictionary.

When I search for the image ID on scenes explorer, the image is available.

    scenes = results.json()['features']

    if len(scenes)!= 0:
        image = sess.get(scenes[0]['_links']['assets'])

there is an asset link: https://api.planet.com/data/v1/item-types/PSScene4Band/items/20171212_054612_1022/assets/'

However, there is not image at this link nor a link to activate the image