Okay, c'mon, you're hypothesizing an absolutely enormous effect size, and then saying because you're an engineer you want 1000 samples?

It's awfully hard to take your commitment to rigor seriously if you say things that indicate that you don't understand how to power a study.

(Also: take care with batch effects. Depending on the type of engineering you were doing, you might not have had to worry about this, but it's a key factor in anything to do with people (or biology, for that matter).)

At least since it's about astrology, there's a ton of interest already, so funding gets a lot easier.