A trip to Mars may appear futuristic and distant but may become reality at some point. NASA’s latest plans show it’s not an utopic sci-fi notion. However, French photographer Julian Mauve, with his own project “Greetings From Mars” brings us one step closer to such a trip.

The photographer sought out a weird, otherworldly place with sand, canyons, rocks and an absolute absence of life in order to show what tourists may “soon” be experiencing on Mars.

The choice of scenery? He was torn between Australia, Jordan, and the US, but finally settled in the American West, which was the most easy to set up in and had a variety of scenery.