I've been going to Electric Propulsion conferences for over a decade now, and I always had a sneaking suspicion that I could build one of those things in my garage, but then common sense takes over when I remind myself how long it would take me to accomplish that. It looks like he is way ahead of me in getting a vacuum system up and running.
One thing the twitter feed does not mention, where is Applied Ion located?
An open source electric thruster is a very key element in returning AMSAT to HEO. Is there anything we can do to help him along?
Dan Schultz N8FGV
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As it happens, Applied Ion is reporting partial success with a thruster design today: https://twitter.com/Applied_Ion His cost per thruster is much closer to Zach's $100. Two thrusters of a previous design of his are scheduled to fly on the AMSAT-EA Genesis satellites, NET September. These are Open Source designs.