nikhil gona

Can't we make an artificial magnetic field where powerful magnets (powered by some other source such as sun) are placed at the poles of the mars. Then the magnetic field protects us from the harmful radiation from the sun. Or, instead of creating magnetic fields for the whole planet, we can make magnetic field only for the places planned to be habituated. To get more oxygen on Mars, plants can be grown on mars. Plants require following components to grow: 1. Water (Can be harvested from frozen lakes on mars) 2. Temperature (specialized greenhouses can be created on mars) 3. nutrients (Initial amount of nutrients can be delivered to mars from earth along with nitrogen harvesting bacteria) 4. water retaining soil (No ideas guys. Throw some.) 5. Initial oxygen for plant respiration (Created from some reactions. Photosynthesis can be carried out with available CO2 on mars).

hi, i'm nikhil and am new to scienceforums. hello to everyone.

Personal private missions to mars and beyond (with near-future technologies) are only possible with additional aid on the way such as fuel refilling stations in space, resting places on moon/mars/asteroids etc. As for going out of the earths gravitational pull, I think the cheap and best way is to use the space elevators which will be coming by 2020 (though each launch into low-earth-orbits through the elevator themselves may take 2-3 days). Once in the earths orbit, fueling station in the orbit can be used for fueling the ship. Of course, fuel has to be put into orbit first. Or you can use sails (similar to solar sails) powered by highly coherent laser beams produced by orbiting satellites for a considerable distance. Fuel refueling stations are being made possible by companies such as planetary resources who mines asteroids for precious resources and water is the most precious fuel in space.