Welcome to r/SpaceX's 3rd weekly Mars architecture discussion thread!

IAC 2016 is encroaching upon us, and with it is coming Elon Musk's unveiling of SpaceX's Mars colonization architecture. There's nothing we love more than endless speculation and discussion, so let's get to it!

To avoid cluttering up the subreddit's front page with speculation and discussion about vehicles and systems we know very little about, all future speculation and discussion on Mars and the MCT/BFR belongs here. We'll be running one of these threads every week until the big humdinger itself so as to keep reading relatively easy and stop good discussions from being buried. In addition, future substantial speculation on Mars/BFR & MCT outside of these threads will require pre-approval by the mod team.

When participating, please try to avoid:

• Asking questions that can be answered by using the wiki and FAQ.

• Discussing things unrelated to the Mars architecture.

• Posting speculation as a separate submission

These limited rules are so that both the subreddit and these threads can remain undiluted and as high-quality as possible.

Discuss, enjoy, and thanks for contributing!

All r/SpaceX weekly Mars architecture discussion threads:

• Week 1

• Week 2

• Week 3

• Week 4

Some past Mars architecture discussion posts (and a link to the subreddit Mars/IAC2016 curation):

• Choosing the first MCT landing site
• How many people have been involved in the development of the Mars architecture?
• BFR/MCT: A More Realistic Analysis, v1.2 (now with composites!)
• "Why should we go to Mars?"
• Another MCT Design.... Cargo MCT Payload/Propellant Arrangements

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