Not only the Chinese are rather unimpressed by the concept of "Lunar Gateway", which is summed up as a much smaller ISS in the Moon orbit.
It made me wonder - wouldn't it be better to move ISS into Moon orbit? How would the effort compare?
Things I can see right now as a necessity:
- need to refurbish ISS, which is approaching end-of-life and will begin to fail badly soon, if not refurbished.
- need for an efficient propulsion module to bring it there and allow for station-keeping. Something similar to the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) currently planned for Gateway, more powerful obviously. Zarya's propulsion has a little too low specific impulse to make it viable. (OTOH, the current solar panels could put some serious wattage into the engine)
- keep ISS unmanned during the transition through Van Allen belts.
Things I'm not sure would be needed:
- radiation shielding, due to operation outside/on outskirts of the magnetosphere
- a new module to replace Zarya, in case Russians decide they don't want their modules in lunar orbit (I think it's out of range of Soyuz)
- a new return craft capable of sitting there for months and serving as a lifeboat
I also wonder how would that look like from financial point of view, comparing to dedicated Gateway. Does it even make sense to consider?