Believer

Elon Musk is his own best PR practitioner. His most recent appearance at SXSW over the weekend allowed him to talk about his vision for settling Mars. It seems outrageous and utterly impractical, but he said he will have his Mars rocket ready by next year and he will start testing it in short flights  He is also working on his spaceship that will be ready at the same time.  It is hard to bet against Musk. He is the founder of Tesla and SpaceX. His Falcon rockets are taking off regularly from earth and putting satellites in orbit. But, colonizing Mars with a million people is a dream. Mars is closer to Antarctica where a few dozen people winter over at the South Pole. It has never proved practical for large-scale development. The environment is too hostile. Still, the man has his dream and he is willing to put his millions behind it. One hopes he doesn’t go broke pursuing it.