Then a few years back, my curiosity began to be resurrected. First by a little robot of the same name and then by a man named Elon who seems incapable of repressing any of his own dreams. Now I was finally here in Huntsville, getting a little taste of what I missed out on as a kid, but still unable to focus completely on the experience. However, this time it had nothing to do with fear and self-repression. Falcon Heavy's echo of a long-ago future While the ever cheerful and helpful staff waited for me to take my turn at a simulated moonwalk, I was glued to a video feed on my phone of launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida -- the very same site where Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins began their historic Apollo 11 mission to ride a Saturn V all the way to the surface of the moon. But this time, almost half a century later, it was Falcon Heavy sitting on the same historic launch pad. I watched on my phone as smoke poured out from beneath Heavy's 27 engines. Not far from me, writers in ill-fitting flight suits made their own steps on the "moon" (basically just an uneven mold of some sort meant to replicate the lunar surface) with the help of huge springs and a harness hanging from the ceiling. It turns out the design for Falcon Heavy and Elon Musk's vision of humans on Mars may have originated, at least in part, in the mind of the man who was instrumental in creating the Saturn V here in Huntsville. Before German-turned-American engineer Wernher von Braun was conscripted to build rockets for the Apollo project, he published a short book in German, "Das Marsprojeckt" (later translated to English). It envisioned reusable rockets, in a configuration more like Falcon Heavy than Saturn V, journeying to the red planet. His sketches on display in Huntsville look like they could be back-of-the-napkin notes taken from SpaceX headquarters. Wernher von Braun's idea of a Mars rocket may have predicted Falcon Heavy. NASA Weirdest of all, von Braun imagined a future Martian government in which the head of state went by the title "Elon." But Falcon Heavy didn't move from that historic launch site as I watched it thunder to life. I was viewing the static fire test performed in advance of Tuesday's groundbreaking launch. After my moon walk and a 45-second ride in the disorienting Multi-Axis Trainer, which simulates an uncontrolled tumble through space, I quickly made my way to the cafeteria, which is more like something out of elementary school than "2001: A Space Odyssey." I commandeered an open table and wrote a post about the successful hold-down firing of Heavy. It was all a bit surreal to be surrounded by the rich past of spaceflight while monitoring the start of its next chapter from afar. Going to distant places requires big ships. Eric Mack/CNET Spending a few days amid all that history amped up my anticipation for Tuesday's launch, which did not disappoint. But space camp also reinforced that I'm still not cut out to be an astronaut. After the guaranteed-not-to-make-you-nauseous Multi-Axis Trainer did make me queasy, I skipped all the other G-force simulators and scuba training, which looked like a blast in retrospect. Now that I've finally had the space camp experience, I think I'm unlikely to return to give any of those simulators another try anytime soon. But I do look forward to returning to the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville one day, perhaps when the museum opens a new wing dedicated to Falcon Heavy and the pioneers of 21st century space exploration. Originally published Feb. 5 at 1:45 p.m. PT. Updated Feb. 9 at 12:02 p.m. PT: Added details about the Falcon Heavy launch. A 23rd-century tourist guide to the galaxy +14 More