If you could climb into a helicopter and fly over a valley on Mars, what would it look like? Well (regardless of the fact that a helicopter probably wouldn’t work very well in the thin Martian air) it would probably be a lot like this – a beautiful animation sequence created by Adrian Lark showing a first-person view of a flight through the Candor Chasma region on Mars. This was created using actual HiRISE image data of the area combined with topographical elevation maps to create an amazingly realistic view of the Martian geography. Fly around mesas, over ridges and along dune-filled valleys as if you were there…just be sure to put your tray table back up in preparation for landing!

Can’t view the video above? Watch it on YouTube here.