ISRU, or in-situ resource utilization, is the practice of using materials found at the mission site instead of shipping everything from Earth. In space systems, that can mean turning lunar ice or asteroid regolith into water, oxygen, fuel, construction material, or radiation shielding. It matters because every kilogram launched from Earth is expensive, so local sourcing can extend mission range, reduce logistics pressure, and make long-duration operations more practical.
In cyber security, ISRU is not just an engineering workflow; it is a control system problem. It depends on sensors, telemetry, autonomous processing, command links, and software that decides what to extract and how to process it. If attackers tamper with data, alter configurations, or disrupt communications, they can reduce yield, damage equipment, or force a mission into unsafe modes. Defenders therefore focus on authentication, integrity checks, segmentation, resilient software, and fail-safe recovery paths.