The organization Explore Mars hosted the annual Humans to Mars (H2M) Summit symposium this past week in Washington D.C. Videos of the presentations and panels are available online: ExploreMars 2015 on Livestream.

This video, for example, includes an entertaining interview (starting at 47:30) with Andrew Weir, author of the best seller, The Martian, which is being made into a movie by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon:

Below is a video of five science fiction authors talking about Mars, its role in sci-fi, and the role of sci-fi in getting people excited about going to Mars:

From Sci-Fi to Reality – Moderator: Catherine Asaro (Science Fiction Author; Sigma Member); Panel: Geoffrey Landis (NASA; Science Fiction Author; Sigma Member); Charles Gannon (Science Fiction Author; Sigma Member); Bud Sparhawk (Science Fiction Author; Sigma Member); Tom Ligon (Science Fiction Author; Sigma Member)