Harnessing the Cosmos: ISRU for Future Exploration
Mining the Moon: How ISRU is Paving the Way for Space Exploration For decades, space exploration has been hampered by the logistical nightmare of transporting everything needed from Earth. Rocket launches are expensive and carry limited payload capacity. This bottleneck presents a major challenge for ambitious missions, especially long-duration stays on other celestial bodies like the Moon or Mars. Enter In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) - a game-changing concept that involves using resources found on a celestial body to support human exploration and habitation. Think of it as space mining, but instead of digging for gold, we're extracting water ice, regolith (lunar soil), and even atmospheric gases to create essential supplies. Why ISRU Matters: Reduces reliance on Earth: By utilizing local...