AstroForge
OPERATING
Develops spacecraft and in-situ refining technology to extract and process platinum group metals from metallic near-Earth asteroids
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ISRU
5 in indexUsing local resources — lunar ice, regolith, Mars CO₂ — instead of shipping everything from Earth.
In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is the practice of extracting, processing, and using resources found at a destination rather than transporting them from Earth. On the Moon: water ice from permanently shadowed regions, regolith for shielding and metals. On Mars: atmospheric CO₂ for oxygen and methane production. In orbit: aggregating debris or asteroidal material.
ISRU is the load-bearing technology for any long-term off-Earth presence. Every kg of propellant, water, or air not lifted from Earth's gravity well is a multi-order improvement in mission economics. It's a near-term commercial opportunity (lunar water for propellant depots) and a long-term existential one (Mars settlement).
- Lunar water mining for propellant depots
- Lunar regolith for radiation shielding and habitat construction
- MOXIE-style oxygen production on Mars
- Asteroid mining (longer-horizon)
Companies working with ISRU
Eta Space
OPERATING
Develops cryogenic propellant management systems for in-space storage, transfer, and refueling, and liquid hydrogen infrastructure for terrestrial energy applications
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Lunar Outpost
OPERATING
Builds lunar rovers and robotic infrastructure for surface mobility, prospecting, and crew transport on the Moon and Mars
EXPLORE
TransAstra
OPERATING
Develops orbital logistics vehicles, asteroid capture systems, and space domain awareness telescopes for cislunar resource utilization
EXPLORE
ispace
OPERATING
Designs and operates lunar landers and rovers, providing payload delivery, surface exploration, and data services to build cislunar infrastructure
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The Canadian Space Agency awards $2 million for lunar in-situ resource utilization studies
he Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has awarded $2 million across four new contracts to map out how humans will survive on the Moon. Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation, SpaceDIRT, and Volta Space Technologies Inc. will spend the next 10 months studying lunar power systems and resource management.