Space Center Houston has debuted its new Mission Mars exhibition – an immersive experience focused on the mysteries of the red planet.

The multi-million dollar interactive exhibit, which has been designed in association with NASA experts, has been created in celebration of the attraction’s 25th year.

Using 4K video technology, visitors will be able to experience a virtual Mars landscape using rovers to explore the planet. The exhibit will put visitors in the seat of an astronaut in the Orion simulator, allowing them to record their own historic messages as they take their first steps on Mars.

A collection of three rare Mars meteorites have been put on display, while there is also a special Mars rock visitors can touch – a rarity with only 150 of the 60,000 known meteorites on Earth coming from Mars.

Within Mission Mars, visitors will be able to learn how Mars and Martians have been illustrated in pop culture; the wealth of potential scientific discoveries to uncover on Mars; the innovation needed to build the most advanced spacecraft; and what returning to earth from deep space involves.

The experience also allows visitors to leave their footprints on three different types of Mars surfaces, study Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, and seek evidence of water and water erosion as keys to finding evidence of possible life on Mars.

A major part of the exhibition will be an Orion space capsule research model used by engineers from NASA Johnson Space Center. Included with the capsule will be a 45-foot-long (13.7 metre) 1/8th scale model of the Space Launch System, which in the future will be used to help propel astronauts farther into space than any rocket in history.

The exhibition was funded through NASA’s Office of Education, which provided a substantial grant in 2013. Aerospace company Lockheed Martin provided the Orion capsule research model, along with further financial support for exhibit construction.

“This new major exhibit will inspire the next generation of explorers who could one day walk on Mars,” said William T. Harris, president and CEO of the science and space learning center. “Visitors will explore what it takes to travel to Mars, the hardware that will get us to the fourth planet in our solar system and how humans may live and conduct research on the red planet in future decades.”

Mission Mars is the first of several exhibits to debut during Space Center Houston's year-long celebration of its silver anniversary. The space centre, a Smithsonian affiliate museum, first opened its doors in October 1992.