In-Situ Resource Utilisation: Living Off the Rock
Summary A settlement is not permanent until it can sustain itself. A presence that depends on Earth resupply is an expedition with good logistics. The line between expedition and settlement is crossed when the settlement produces from local resources everything it needs to survive, maintain, and extend itself indefinitely. That line is crossed by ISRU — in-situ resource utilisation, the use of local materials rather than imported supplies. Using what is there rather than importing what is needed. At Ceres, what is there is sufficient: water ice for propellant and life support, silicate regolith for construction, carbon for advanced manufacturing, solar energy delivered by orbital array, and the rock itself for radiation shielding. The resources are not the constraint. The engineering process that converts them into usable products is. ...