ISRU

The ISRU is a part the player uses to mine on planets. It requires an ore tank to be on the craft with extra space. If that condition is met, then it will begin extracting material from the surface and funneling it into the ore tank.

The proper name of the part stands for In-Situ Resource Utilizer, which is derived from a general term for mining other planets. It is often called a miner because it is similar in function to a part in SSE by that name.

The miner costs 500 cash to create in the VAB.

Appearance
The ISRU takes on the appearance of a car engine. It is dark grey and one end is made to fit visually with 6-wide rocket fuselages.

Usage
To use the ISRU, it must make contact with the surface of a planet. The player must click it, and that will cause it to become anchored and begin mining. It will not start mining if there is not enough storage for more ore, and it will stop mining if that happens during mining. It can be stopped by clicking.

The amount of ore yielded by the ISRU varies depending on the planet it is used on. This roughly comes from the average orbital distance from Earth.