In Situ Resource Utilization

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In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) refers to the production of useful materials from the resources available at a given location. The phrase is from the Latin in situ, meaning "at the site", or "in place." ISRU can be categorized into production of materials useful at the current location, primarily: life support, propellant, radiation shielding, construction and structural materials, and raw materials for other production useful for habitat expansion.

It may be possible to commercialize these processes to produce commodity materials for use elsewhere in space, including propellent for further colonization and exploration as well as materials for habitats and spacecraft. Some of the commodities may also be sold back to earth. High value materials include rare isotopes deposited by the solar wind and platinum group metals. Bulk commodities consist of nickel and iron mined from asteroids, oxygen, aluminum and titanium from the moon, and other materials for manufacture of structures in space such as solar power satellites.

One form of ISRU is In-Situ Propellant Production, (ISPP), or manufacture of rocket fuel from local resources; the term ISPP is no longer currently much used, in favor of the more generic terminology ISRU, which incorporates use of in-situ resources for uses other than propellant.