We built a Hall effect thruster for $454. The same technology costs $50,000 commercial. We also built the AI that operates it — running autonomously in Bogotá today.
Hall effect thrusters are the gold standard for satellite propulsion — used in every Starlink satellite. They cost $15,000–$50,000 per unit. We built one for $454 using open-source hardware design, validated physics, and components available worldwide.
This isn't a theoretical exercise. The design is complete, the physics is validated to 0 critical errors across 10 independent checks (orbital mechanics, Tsiolkovsky equation, thrust class, Hohmann transfers). We're building it next.
| Parameter | GHT-1 Specification |
|---|---|
| Propellant | Solid iodine — no pressurization required |
| Thrust | 1–5 mN |
| Specific Impulse | 800–1,500 s |
| Power | 4–10 W |
| Delta-v (100g iodine) | 1,550 m/s → 31 months orbital maintenance |
| Form factor | 0.5U CubeSat compatible |
| Discharge voltage | 200 V DC |
| Ionization channel | Boron Nitride ceramic |
| TRL | 2 — design complete, physics validated |
| Hardware cost | $454 USD (components only) |
BARCO is a 19-service autonomous AI system running in Bogotá today. It receives satellite telemetry, analyzes the state, makes decisions, and issues commands — without human intervention, without internet dependency, without licensing fees.
Commercial mission control software costs $100,000–$500,000/year. BARCO runs on a $40/month VPS using only local AI models. It has been operating continuously since July 2026 with 174+ persistent orbital events in its memory.
Every ~90-min LEO pass. Battery, altitude, attitude, thermal.
Llama 3.1 8B + Milvus vector memory consult. No cloud API.
FIRE_THRUSTER / SAFE_MODE / NOMINAL in ~75 seconds.
Next pass. No human required. Mission continues.
Llama 3.1 8B + Gemma 3 4B running on K3s. Zero OpenAI, zero Anthropic, zero AWS. Full data sovereignty.
Milvus vector database stores every mission event. BARCO remembers orbital history and adapts decisions.
n8n, Gitea, Milvus, Kafka, MinIO, Aider — entire mission control stack on one VPS. No cloud bill.
Demo — See BARCO in Action
GHT-1 CubeSat — Live Telemetry
Drag to rotate · click a subsystem for details · data updates every 3 s
The physics that ionizes iodine in the GHT-1 thruster also destroys perchlorates in water. Mars soil contains 5,000 mg/L of perchlorate — 700,000x the safe limit for humans. Cold atmospheric plasma reduces it to harmless chloride in 30 minutes, without importing any chemicals.
ClO₄⁻ + plasma electrons → Cl⁻ + 2O₂. Neta et al. (2021) confirmed. 30 min/liter. $0 chemicals.
Sediment → Plasma (CAP) → Reverse osmosis → BARCO verification. 50W solar. 2 kg. $500 hardware.
H₂O₂ + NO₂⁻ produced in water by plasma. +28% wheat germination (Zhang 2022). Fertilizer from air.
Because there is no server to shut down. Senda connects devices directly — peer-to-peer — with post-quantum cryptography (Dilithium3, NIST 2024) and identity anchored in Polygon blockchain. No company to pressure. No central point to block.
In Iran (2019), Myanmar (2021), Belarus (2020) — governments didn't hack the devices. They called WhatsApp and Telegram and asked them to turn off the service. Senda has no one to call.
iroh P2P connects devices directly. Works via local hotspot — no internet required. Text, voice, and video encrypted end-to-end.
Dilithium3 — standardized by NIST in 2024. Conversations are safe today and against future state-level quantum computing attacks.
Peer-to-wallet POL transfers via Polygon Mainnet. No bank, no intermediary. Emergency cash transfers in unbanked conflict zones.
Active and upcoming grant applications across US, EU, and Colombia. Total pipeline if all succeed: over $3M USD.
PAW experiments in Bogotá. arXiv preprints. LLC Delaware. First grant funding. GitHub open-source release.
GHT-1 hardware built and tested in vacuum. SpaceX Transporter rideshare launch. First Colombian Hall thruster in orbit.
NASA SBIR Phase 2. Plasma water purification system validated. Lunar analog test. BARCO v2 operates constellation.
System in Artemis lunar mission. First real-world test of plasma water purification on another world.
A Colombian system purifies Mars water. An astronaut drinks it. The Global South is in space — for real.
BARCO is running right now. The satellite dashboard updates every 90 seconds with real autonomous AI decisions. We can demo over video call.
GHT-1 design documentation available under NDA · BARCO live demo by appointment