A couple of interesting stories from Avweek

First on Quiet Supersonic tech, second on Mars ISRU.

A couple of Mars movies coming this year

Just stumbled upon these two trailers this evening.

First up Approaching the unknown, about an astronaut (played by Mark Strong) on a one man, one way mars mission:

A mission like this seems unrealistic but could be a good psychological/character study. Hab design seems realistic, bit it looses a point for using stock footage of a Delta II as a launcher though.

Second is Second is The Space Between Us, a romantic drama about a teenage boy born on Mars visiting Earth and falling in love (blurgh)

Apart from the infeasibility of an astronauts pregnancy not being notice prior to launch  and that the boy seems normal sized despite growing up in reduced gravity, the space aspects look good, with SpaceX Dragons and Sierra Nevada's Dreamchaser visible in the trailer. Not sure will go see though (unless on a date...)

More details on SpaceX Mars plans

A couple of articles in Avweek on SpaceX's plans and NASA's involvement.

Questions to which the answer is 'yes'

Will SpaceX get people to Mars before NASA?

I'd also like to see them land a manned Dragon on the moon on July 20th, 2019.

Also on the subject SpaceX, an interesting (and long) series of articles on Elon Musk, Tesla, Mars Colonisation, Solar City,  Hyperloop and finally on the difference between men like Musk and the the rest of us mere mortals. I especially like the analogy in the last part between 'cooks' and 'chefs'; could easily describe myself as a 'Self-hating cook' at the moment....