A future international space station that may be put in orbit around the Moon will be one-fourth or even one-fifth the size of the International Space Station currently orbiting the Earth, the chief of the Manned Programs Center at the space industry’s main research institute, cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, has told TASS.

"The discussion over plans for creating an international station in the Moon’s orbit is in the initial phase. Pre-project talks are being held by the ISS partner countries at the working group level. The purpose of the station will be to create a near-Moon infrastructure for subsequent exploration and development of the Moon. Currently the station is seen as a small visitable orbiter consisting of three or four modules in the Moon’s polar highly elliptical orbit," he said.

The International Space Station consists of fifteen modules, five of which are Russian.

Kotov said a future lunar space station will help polish technologies crucial to exploring the Moon and deep space. In particular, it may explore the Moon’s surface using rovers and landing probes.

"The lunar station is regarded as an international project and this is very good, because it would be very wrong to neglect the experience of international cooperation in designing and operating the ISS accumulated over years when the ISS life cycle is over.