Hacker News Reader

Their experiment was using a closed biosphere, so they're bringing the atmosphere with them.

Really, I think the original article was terrible; it omitted important details to make the whole thing sound more silly. Closed biological systems are an interesting field of research.

I'm not sure about radiation levels on a mars mission, but if we can solve the problem for humans, it should be solvable for plants/algae.

My impression was that Curiosity's sensors have shown that the presumed danger of Martian radiation has been greatly overestimated. Unfortunately, I can't remember the sources, but I've read it in multiple places.

The magnetic field on Earth is not what protects you from radiation. It's the thickness of the atmosphere. Lots of radiation is uncharged particles which don't care at all about a magnetic field.