Contact
We’d love to hear from you
Email the chapter or anyone below
Your ideas and help are welcome!
Meet 5-7 PM
2nd Saturday each month
JP Aerospace
Rancho Cordova, CA 95724
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Joe Bland
Sacramento L5 Society
President / Treasurer
Joseph Barrett Bland was born March 5, 1946. Mr. Bland comes from a family steeped in the creative spirit. His father, Reginald Barrett Bland, majored in mechanical engineering at Cal Tech, and had at least 14 patents granted in his name. His grandfather, Walter Reginald Bland, was the founder of the Pasadena Symphony (1928) and invented an early synchromesh automobile transmission.
Joseph majored in theater and music in college, but also has a life-long interest in mechanical engineering. At various times he has been a prototype machinist, a programmer for computer-controlled machinery, a certified aerospace mechanical technician, and a CAD drafter/designer with a skill set in 2D, 3D, and solid modeling for both civil and mechanical applications.
Joseph was granted two U.S. patents in the late 1990’s on a novel approach to constructing a heat-driven engine. In 2000, he received a California Energy Innovation Small Grant award to explore this concept. As Principle Investigator, he designed and fabricated a prototype testing platform that indicated potential for this concept. This proprietary concept is still under development.
Since 2007, Joseph has served as the President of the Sacramento L5 Society, local chapter of the National Space Society (NSS). Since 2015, Joseph has been deeply involved with other members of the Sacramento L5 Society in developing concepts for increasing the practicality of laser-transmitted energy, especially as related to decreasing the cost of mining and colonizing the surface of the Moon. In 2017, Joseph was elected as Chair of the NSS Chapter Assembly.
Ed Kulis
Sacramento L5 Society
Secretary / Web Admin
Ed Kulis, to his surprise, was born before the Hefty Bag. Back in the days of small shops all within walking distance, repeating so you didn’t walk far, bakery, candy store, butcher shop, dry goods, beauty parlor, hardware store, dry cleaners, drug store, flower shop, funeral home, …, every few blocks in South Ozone Park, Queens, NY, when ozone meant fresh air from the sea and where the houses had capped off gas fixtures above the overhead lights.
Indignant, Ed sat in his high chair, attired in a checkered vest and bow tie, worrying that Gene Kranz would steal his look and exclaiming, “Whadda’ ya’ mean I gotta’ wait 60 years for an iPad?”
On to soldering irons, tubes, punch cards, paper tape, magnetic reels, to multi-windowed access requiring a wide desk with 3 VT100s and 3 keyboards. Then, Unix, Oracle, Web Admin, macOS and Apple for 2 decades supporting the systems that support you when you call with a problem.
L. Paul Turner
Sacramento L5 Society
Member
L. Paul Turner flew jets for the United States Air Force, then spent years in real estate construction, law practice and real estate. His ideas for space investment derive from tried and true earth real estate development methods. He is a long standing member of the National Space Society. He currently builds airships at JP Aerospace in Northern California.
Check out Paul’s links:
Cle Curbo
Sacramento L5 Society
Author
Cle Curbo writes sci-fi. His collection of short stories encouraged a sparkling review from Kirkus Reviews Mistress Bloom >>>
Cle is currently finishing up a love story mystery, “For the Love of Maggie O’Die,” set in San Francisco. A space adventure novel is slated for 2021. Cle writes from his home in central crazyville California.
Tom Tolan
Sacramento L5 Society
Member
Expert in multiple areas of spacecraft design and integration, including Power, communications, and electrical integration. Also skilled in Anti-Tamper and Safety Engineering.
Lisa Westwood
Sacramento L5 Society
Member
Lisa Westwood is a Registered Professional Archaeologist with over 26 years of experience in cultural resources management, serving as Vice President and Director of Cultural Resources for ECORP Consulting, Inc., where she specializes in historical archaeology, including Cold War-era aerospace installations, and regulatory and legal compliance with applicable historic preservation law. She is the co-founder of the Apollo 11 Preservation Task Force, composed of preservation professionals who are working toward designation of Tranquility Base on the moon as a World Heritage site, and is a member of the Science, Industry, and Education Advisory Council of For All Moonkind, a non-profit organization seeking international protection for space heritage on the moon.
She led the effort to list the Objects Associated with Tranquility Base on the California Register of Historical Resources and New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties, which was achieved in 2010, and worked with members of Congress to have the site designated a National Historic Landmark. She authored the 2014 resolution by the State of Hawaii to designate July 20 as Tranquility Base Day. She has been featured or appeared in numerous media reports and interviews on national radio, print, and television, including National Public Radio, The Blue Dot, California Life with Heather Dawson, Reuters International, the Washington Post, and Space Times Magazine, among many others. She was an invited panelist for the NASA and the Smithsonian Institution’s “Key Moments in Human Spaceflight Symposium” at NASA Headquarters. She is well-published in the field of space history, including the senior author of her most recent book, titled “The Final Mission: Preserving NASA’s Apollo Sites,” published by the University Press of Florida in 2017. She is a contributing author to Archaeology and Heritage of the Human Movement into Space (2014, Springer Press), several articles and book reviews in Space Times Magazine and Quest: the History of Spaceflight, and an opinion piece for the Washington Post in 2012. She is She also teaches in the anthropology departments at California State University-Chico and Butte College.