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Wednesday, December 5, 2001 3D Rendering Mars in 3D. Credit: NASA / MOLA Science Team / O. de Goursac / A. Lark (CNN) - Now an artist has offered several views of [Valles Marineris], its deep canyons and towering cliffs, all based on topographical data obtained by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. Scientists caution that the renderings should not be used to make scientific interpretations about Valles Marineris. But NASA has released the images to the public because they are rendered from solid scientific data. The artist’s impressions are the work of Olivier de Goursac of the French Mars Society and Adrian Lark, who used computer software to interpret the topographical information. The renderings provide several views of how things might look in various parts of a sprawling complex of valleys, which on Earth would stretch from Los Angeles to New York. "My goal was to obtain the most natural-looking views, as if an astronaut was standing on the surface of Mars, or as if we were flying above Valles Marineris," de Goursac told Space.com. "Also, the dust opacity of the Martian atmosphere is accurately rendered and all colors and luminosity were very carefully balanced to be as close as possible to reality." (More info: MSNBC.com) @ 18:42 EST