In situ resource utilization

ISRU reverse water gas shift testbed (NASA KSC)
ISRU Pilot Excavator – A NASA project

In space exploration, in situ resource utilization (ISRU) is the practice of collection, processing, storing and use of materials found or manufactured on other astronomical objects (the Moon, Mars, asteroids, etc.) that replace materials that would otherwise be brought from Earth.[1]

ISRU could provide materials for life support, propellants, construction materials, and energy to a spacecraft payloads or space exploration crews. It is now very common for spacecraft and robotic planetary surface mission to harness the solar radiation found in situ in the form of solar panels. The use of ISRU for material production has not yet been implemented in a space mission, though several field tests in the late 2000s demonstrated various lunar ISRU techniques in a relevant environment.[2]

ISRU has long been considered as a possible avenue for reducing the mass and cost of space exploration architectures, in that it may be a way to drastically reduce the amount of payload that must be launched from Earth in order to explore a given planetary body. According to NASA, "in-situ resource utilization will enable the affordable establishment of extraterrestrial exploration and operations by minimizing the materials carried from Earth."[3]

  1. ^ Sacksteder, Kurt R.; Sanders, Gerald B. (January 2007). "In-situ resource utilization for lunar and mars exploration". AIAA 2007-345. AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit. doi:10.2514/6.2007-345. ISBN 978-1-62410-012-3.
  2. ^ Sanders, Gerald B.; Larson, William E. (4 January 2011). "Integration of In-Situ Resource Utilization into lunar/Mars exploration through field analogs". Advances in Space Research. 47 (1): 20–29. Bibcode:2011AdSpR..47...20S. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2010.08.020. hdl:2060/20100021362. S2CID 120129018.
  3. ^ "In-Situ Resource Utilization". NASA Ames Research Center. Archived from the original on 8 September 2018. Retrieved 14 January 2007.