MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. The isolation experiment SIRIUS can help create a fleet of simulators for training crews for future lunar missions, the commander of a SIRIUS crew, cosmonaut Yevgeny Tarelkin, told TASS in an interview on Tuesday.

"I believe this is a very promising project. The way I see it, it may herald the beginning of a program for creating simulators to train participants in future flights to the Moon," he said.

Tarelkin was invited to take part in the experiment in order to integrate knowledge and experience obtained during a real space flight with an experimental complex on the ground.

"It is an experimental sample. We’ve got to taken down notes and ideas first in order to make amendments to future SIRIUS models. In my opinion some of future crews’ members must have previous space flight experience. I would recommend to use an experienced cosmonaut in the next SIRIUS experiment, too," Yevgeny Tarelkin said.

SIRIUS (Scientific International Research in Unique Terrestrial Station) is a series of experiments underway on the basis of the Institute of Biomedical Problems under the Russian Academy of Sciences as part of preparations for future deep space missions, in the first place a Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway (previously called Deep Space Gateway). The first in the series of joint Russian-US experiments SIRIUS was held in November 2017. It lasted for 17 days. The crew conducted more than 60 various experiments, grabbed satellites with a robotic arm and drove a rover on a hypothetical Moon surface. The second four-month isolation experiment will begin on March 19, to be followed by an eight-month one. The last one will last for a whole year.