The name
Insistent means continuing despite difficulties, opposition, and discouragement. That is the company in one word. Galactic is the ambition, stated without apology. Operationz is a reminder that the point is to operate, not to theorize. The z is ours.
The symbol
The i in iGO is a single human being. Not a company, not a crew. One person, standing for every one of us and for all life that came from the same small planet.
The astronaut is a child, because the people who will actually live and work among the asteroids are not born yet, and because the mission takes the kind of belief a child can hold and an adult has to relearn.
The palm branch behind the back is an old sign of victory and peace, carried casually, not brandished.
The icosahedron overhead is the rock. Twenty faces, all identical, all reachable: a reminder that the asteroid is a solvable problem, not a mystery.
The Earth patch on the suit is where we come from. Every kilogram of water we ever sell exists so that industry can leave this planet and this planet can heal.
Why .earth
Because the goal was never to leave Earth behind. It was to protect it. Everything iGO does off-planet is measured by what it makes possible on this one.
We envision a future of abundance, not scarcity: a future where humanity survives and thrives off-planet while the burden of humanity’s resource needs is taken off Earth, allowing it to become a Garden Planet. We at iGO call this Operation Green Earth.
What changed
When the idea for iGO was first written down, it carried the motto World Peace ore Bust. The pun on ore was intentional, and the sentiment was sincere. Some of that sentiment survives. The company still believes space resources belong to all of humanity and should be harvested without harm to any world.
But the slogan does not survive, and it is worth saying why. Peace is not the absence of conflict; conflict is part of being human and always will be. A world that is quiet because everyone has been beaten into silence is not at peace. It is conquered. Be careful what you wish for.
So iGO does not sell peace. iGO sells water. What we insist on is that the water be gathered honestly, delivered as promised, and made available to whoever comes to the well, and that the gathering of it does more good than harm. That is a smaller promise than world peace. It is also one we can keep.
Values
Insistence. Continuing despite difficulties, opposition, and discouragement. It is in our name, and this is a mission measured in decades.
Integrity. Every claim traceable. We publish what our systems do, never inflate what they have found, and let delivered water be the proof.
Crescere Unum. “To grow as one.” Space resources belong to all of humanity, harvested responsibly, without harm to any world, for the benefit of every person on this one.
The team
Joshua Waters
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Joshua Waters is the founder of insistent Galactic Operationz (iGO), where he directs the company’s asteroid water mining program. He received his M.S. in Space Resources from the Colorado School of Mines in 2022, the graduate program in which Mr. Cleveland teaches, and holds a B.S. in Finance with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from the University of Kansas. In 2024 he led iGO’s first federal research proposal, a NASA STTR Phase I submitted with Oral Roberts University, on turning public asteroid observation data into a ranked assessment of accessible water. That work became iSEE, the intelligent Space Exploration Engine, the operational first stage of the iGO fleet, which he built and continues to develop. His interests lie in the economics and engineering of near-Earth asteroid water extraction, and in the infrastructure required to deliver it as propellant and life support beyond Earth. A native of Oklahoma City, he operates iGO from Infinity One, Oklahoma’s spaceport at Burns Flat.
Prof. Mark J. Sundahl
Chief Legal Advisor
Prof. Mark J. Sundahl is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Global Space Law Center at Cleveland State University. Prof. Sundahl is an expert on the law of outer space and focuses primarily on the business, legal, and policy issues arising from the increase in private space activity. He has served on the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) which advises the Federal Aviation Administration regarding new regulations governing private space activity and has served as a member and advisor to the U.S. delegation to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. He most recently served as a member of NASA’s Regulatory and Policy Committee which is charged with advising the NASA Advisory Committee on regulatory reform. In addition to his academic work, Prof. Sundahl is the principal of ASTRALEX LLC, a space law and policy consultancy.
Jeffrey Cleveland
Chief Space Economist
Jeffrey Cleveland is an economics lecturer and Ph.D. candidate in Space Resources Economic Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, where he is an adjunct professor in the economics of space resources. A frequent conference speaker, Mr. Cleveland is also on the faculty of Howard Community College (Maryland), where he has taught since 2012. In addition, he serves as Chief Space Economist for several early-stage firms, helping them refine and advance their service offerings for the space economy. In the burgeoning field of space economics, his research and writing interests lie in developing macro- and microeconomic policies for cislunar space, and defining long-term economic development policies for a solar system-wide economy. Mr. Cleveland received his MA in Economics from the University of Detroit Mercy, where he was inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu, the honor society of Jesuit universities recognizing scholarly achievement. He also has two degrees from the University of Maryland, a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Business Administration.
Join the mission
Partner with us, invest in the chain, or follow the mission as it climbs. The first water sold off Earth will belong to the insistent.