When the Perot Museum of Nature and Science opened ten years ago, I tragically lost a footrace against a tyrannosaurus rex. The museum is built with hands-on exhibits to spark kids’ interest in science, to make them want to ask questions and learn more about why a tyrannosaurus can run faster than a fella in his 30s who, if we’re being honest with each other, might be a bit out-of-shape.

But we’re never done learning. Science now reports I could totally take a T-rex. I’ve since added a handsome limp to my gait, but the T-rex was weighing in at 15,000 pounds. “You’re still slimmer than a therapod!” my doctor beamed at my last physical.

For spring break this year, the Perot Museum is debuting an exhibit where kids can learn about the current Mars mission.

“Coming up, I’ll tell you about how you can take a spring break trip that’s out of this world!” I told listeners then sat back in my chair and nodded with a smile on my face to indicate I was impressed with myself.

The helicopter has tragically ended its mission, but that scrappy bird had more flights than planned, and one its pictures is the backdrop for the exhibit. NASA presented us with an engineer from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

“I’d like to ride that thing like a bucking bronco,” I said.

Did Chris Salvo tell me not to? No. He solved the problem, explaining it probably wouldn’t be as exciting as I hoped, given that it travels nine miles an hour.

The exhibit even features the sounds of Mars. I was excited because “natural sound” is great for the radio, whether it’s a crowd cheering at a ballgame or a band playing at a festival. I was somewhat disappointed to hear a barren wasteland instead of, for example, green men singing a jaunty tune as they wrenched on a flying saucer.

In that video, NASA does explain the microphone they bought is no better than the one I shove in people’s faces every day. But they also explain why the wind sounds hollow. Mars is [spoiler alert] a desolate wasteland.

The exhibit aims to get kids excited in science and achieving new things.

JPL’s Chris Salvo says they also get a chance to show kids how many different aspects of science work together on a project like this from physicists to mechanical engineers to communications guys who figure out how to beam pictures back to Earth and ultimately to geologists who will study the rocks when we can bring them back.

While NASA hopes to inspire kids to put in the work and push themselves past what they consider to be limits, my goal is to recreate a scene from Dr. Strangelove, though I suspect I’d look more like Homer Simpson.

That may be one of the reasons I never became a rocket scientist.