SpaceX will collaborate with NASA for a Dragon mission to Mars, set to take place as early as 2018. The 'Red Dragon' Mars project will use Falcon heavy rocket variants to send soft Mars landing missions. SpaceX will be a decade ahead of NASA's current Space Launch System SLS rockets. SpaceX CEO/lead designer Elon Musk will reveal his plans for the Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) as well as the Martian base life support systems/architecture/research structures at the 2016 International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico. Musk's personal motivation has the advantages over NASA's political constraints, he has the aspiration and accelerated goal to make humans the first multi-planetary species - by the mid 2020's!
Elon Musk's Interplanetary Species Manifesto.
Elon Musk Wants to Die on Mars | Vanity Fair