In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is just a fancy way of saying that we want to use the resources that are available at the Homesteading site. This is critical to any space settlement because it costs way too much to send everything from Earth. Our Homesteaders are going to have to be as self-sufficient as possible if Lunar settlement is going to be a reality.
ISRU focuses mainly on mining. Collecting energy is covered on the Energy page. There’s no indigenous biological resources so that’s not a consideration (biological resources are covered on the Food page). And using the SPORE technique requires all Homesteads to engage in mining anyway.
ISRU Category Posts
General ISRU
- Classification of manufacturing processes
- Building a Lunar iron mine
- Lunar Surface Mining Challenges
- Identify Lunar resources
- Characterize Lunar resources
- Extract Lunar resources
- Process Lunar resources
- Single batch material processing (simpler, small, contained) vs continuous processing (large, complex, open)
- Resource storage
- Market Lunar resources
Shielded Pressurized Oxygen Resource Extraction (SPORE)
- Shielded Pressurized Oxygen Resource Extraction (SPORE) Overview
- SPORE at a Glance
- SPORE Shield Wall
- Material
- Cast Lunar basalt
- Hewn Lunar basalt
- Glass composite
- Sintered regolith
- Lunar iron
- Design
- Material
- SPORE Designs
- SPORE Experiments
Lunar Regolith and mega-regolith
Lunar basalt
Lunar Iron
Oxygen
Hydrogen
- Lunar Ice
- In regolith
Lunar glass
- Nitrogen
- Carbon
- Aluminum
- Titanium
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Silicon
- Helium-3
- Water