To explore strange new worlds, and to live on this one, humans must characterize the environment into which they will live and travel, and also must provide conditions in which they can thrive. No earlier than 2025, NASA/ESA/JAXA/CSA plan to establish a space station called Gateway that will orbit the Moon. Initially with no crew, Gateway will have instruments on board to monitor the radiation environment and gather data about the solar wind and space weather. Interestingly, Gateway will spend about 20% of its orbit inside Earth’s magnetotail, helping to answer questions about how that environment reacts to solar drivers. Combined together, data from Gateway instrumentation will help provide security for the human explorers who will spend time on board that space station. Also planned for 2025 is a human return to the lunar surface. While on the surface of the Moon and while in transit between Earth and Moon, astronauts will face conditions that will be similar to those between Earth and Mars, albeit on a shorter time scale. Future missions to the Moon and Mars rely on understanding the impacts of space weather on the environment, humans, and technology. To assure safe operations, mission planning will also consider how the environment changes with solar cycle (solar maximum is approximately 2025).

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