Energia Lunar Base Credit - © Mark Wade

In 1988, with development of the Buran space shuttle completed, Glushko ordered new studies on a lunar based that could be established using the Energia booster. The more modest lunar expeditions would spend up to 10 days on the surface. Eventually the lunar regolith would be mined for He-3 for use in nuclear fusion power plants on earth.

This isotope was very rare on the earth but had been deposited in the lunar soil by billions of years of solar wind. Use of He-3 would make nuclear fusion conditions much easier to attain, removing one of the major roadblocks to obtaining nuclear fusion conditions in plasma containment reactors.

Crew Size: 3. Design Life: 10 days. Associated Launch Vehicle: Energia.

• LOK Energia.  Other Designations: Lunniy orbital'niy korabl'. Class: Manned. Type: Lunar Orbiter. Destination: Moon. Nation: Russia. Manufacturer: Korolev.

  Lunar orbiter for Energia-launched lunar expedition. The LOK and LK lander would be inserted into lunar orbit by separate Energia launches.

  After rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, three of the five crew aboard the LOK would transfer to the LK and descend to the lunar surface. After 5 to 10 days on the surface, the ascent stage of the LK would return to lunar orbit, and the crew would transfer back to the LOK. The LOK would remain in lunar orbit for a full lunar day (29 days) until returning to earth.

  Crew Size: 5. Design Life: 30 days. Orbital Storage: 30 days. Length: 9.60 m (31.40 ft). Maximum Diameter: 5.40 m (17.70 ft). Mass: 30,000 kg (66,000 lb). Associated Launch Vehicle: Energia.

• LK Energia.  Other Designations: Lunniy korabl. Class: Manned. Type: Lunar Lander. Destination: Moon. Nation: Russia. Manufacturer: Korolev.

  Lunar lander for Energia-launched lunar expedition. The LOK and LK lander would be inserted into lunar orbit by separate Energia launches.

  After rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, three of the five crew aboard the LOK would transfer to the LK and descend to the lunar surface. After 5 to 10 days (5 days standard, 10 with additional consumables) on the surface, the ascent stage of the LK would return to lunar orbit, and the crew would transfer back to the LOK. Prior to landing an unmanned Lunokhod would scout the region, allowing selection of a suitable landing site, and serve as a landing beacon for the precision LK landing.

  Crew Size: 3. Design Life: 10 days. Orbital Storage: 30 days. Length: 9.80 m (32.10 ft). Maximum Diameter: 4.60 m (15.00 ft). Span: 8.40 m (27.50 ft). Mass: 29,000 kg (63,000 lb). Electrical System: Solar panels. Associated Launch Vehicle: Energia.

• Semenov, Yuri P Editor, Raketno-kosmicheskaya korporatsiya 'Energia' imeni S P Koroleva, Moscow, Russia, 1996. Russian in-house history of the Energia Corporation and its predecessors. Unprecedented detail, photographs, designations, and drawings, on the products of Korolev's OKB.