I wouldn't say that somene is trying to create an artificiale magnetic field all araound Mars. They probably wants to creat magnetic field only around specific inhabitated regions or simply around a single building. Although, not everything is ready yet, other planets colonization (in full or only partially) is possible. Mars is probably not the ideal planet to colonize. It is important like our moon though, due to the possibility of resource exploitation like iron and other minerals. In my opinion, in order for planets to be colonozied by us have to be more similar to our Earth. Not only for what concerns water and agricultural possibilities, but also the size of the planet is important. The gravity force of Mars is really weak compared to ours. A long life experience on Mars would be healthy for our body. Very interesting though :)