Fly Over Mars’s Actual Landscape With a 3D Recreation From Real Satellite Images

The still, 2D images of Mars’ landscape captured by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are fascinating on their own, but since most of us are unlikely to ever visit the planet—though that could still change—we’ll never really get to see what it truly looks like. So, Finnish filmmaker Jan Frodjman digitally mapped those images with 3D topography and created this incredible flyover of the Red Planet’s features.

In fact, it probably looks better than what you’d see from an airplane passing over the planet, since the hazy atmosphere would also obscured the geological features. It’s even more impressive for the fact that Frodjman, unaware of terrain modeling software, did all of this 3D topographical mapping by hand over a period of three months—still quicker than actually going to the planet, so we appreciate his efforts.

(via Wired, image via screengrab)

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Dan Van Winkle

Dan Van Winkle (he) is an editor and manager who has been working in digital media since 2013, first at now-defunct Geekosystem (RIP), and then at The Mary Sue starting in 2014, specializing in gaming, science, and technology. Outside of his professional experience, he has been active in video game modding and development as a hobby for many years. He lives in North Carolina with Lisa Brown (his wife) and Liz Lemon (their dog), both of whom are the best, and you will regret challenging him at Smash Bros.

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