SpaceX was already pretty ambitious when it signaled plans to send a Dragon capsule to Mars, but the originally hoped-for 2022 launch was apparently not quick enough. The company has announced plans to send an unmanned Dragon to Mars "as soon as" 2018 -- that's just a couple of years from now, folks. It also expects Red Dragons to define the "overall Mars architecture." Other details are scant at I write this, but it's already clear that SpaceX wants to try interplanetary travel as quickly as possible.