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A comment on The Economic Viability of Mars Colonization (1995) [pdf].

Re:The Economic Viability of Mars Colonization (1995) [pdf] by superobserver on Wednesday January 28, 2015 @10:50AM (#8960456)
Isn't the main issue with Mars not it's atmosphere or landscape but rather the fact that it has no magnetic field to speak of? That poses an issue for electronics as well as any living beings that aren't tardigrades.

Edit: the only solution to this that I can think of would be to have any and all housing underground, since I don't think it will be possible to restore Mars' magnetosphere.

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Re:The Economic Viability of Mars Colonization (1995) [pdf] by stephancoral on Wednesday January 28, 2015 @11:47AM (#8960903)
Forgive my ignorance but what are the implications of no magnetic field on humans, mammals etc? Does it regulate some crucial biological function(s)?
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Re:The Economic Viability of Mars Colonization (1995) [pdf] by moridin on Wednesday January 28, 2015 @12:20PM (#8961114)
A planetary magnetic field acts as a shield for space-based radiation that may otherwise interfere with biological processes. There's some really nasty stuff out there that the earth's field deflects for us : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_magnetic_field#Magnet...
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Re:The Economic Viability of Mars Colonization (1995) [pdf] by Symmetry on Wednesday January 28, 2015 @11:02AM (#8960545)
Yes, that's a big issue for living on the surface. On the other hand the atmosphere is a nice trivially accessible source of a number of important chemicals and makes getting from space to the surface much easier.
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