Blog

Meeting Notes

Home Page: SacramentoL5Society.org

SacL5 Officers: Joe Bland President, Jan Rosten VP, Ed Kulis Secretary (click name to email)

• Greetings – New Attendees!
  • Joe Beauchamp (very old friend of Robert Compton touching base after many years)
  • Richard G. Parks (from AZ – interested in reaction-less drives).
  • Gregory Liscomb (from Visalia, CA – still interested in attending, but has a sometimes conflict with his astronomy group, Tulare Astronomical Association)
  • Discussion of Robert Compton’s work see:
    • Robert Compton, in Memoriam
    • Robert Compton Peroxide Rockets
• Updates and General Chapter Business
  • President’s and Treasurer’s Report(Joe Bland)
    • About $9000 in the account and there’s also the $4500 funds paid to JP Aerospace for the Student Stem Balloon Flight Prize. 
    • Joe Bland
      • working on IRS non-profit paperwork
      • working on NSS Chapter report
  • Update on SacL5 Website Report(Ed Kulis)
    • Previous Meeting Notes
    • Recent Website Traffic Report
  • NSS Chapters Assembly Notes
    • NOTE: NSS Chapters Committee(CC) vs NSS Chapters Assembly(CA)
      • The NSS Chapters Committee is the formal NSS governing body for NSS Chapters. The CC establishes rules regarding recognition of a group as a NSS Chapter and how NSS receives and acts on input from NSS Chapters. A loose analogy is that NSS Chapters are “franchised” by NSS and must conform to standards and practices set by the CA.
      • The NSS Chapters Assembly is a association of interested representatives from different NSS Chapters. The CA proposes changes and suggests novelty and improvements to the CC and the NSS. They also vet any CA rule changes that might impede Chapters recruitment, visibility, activities and access to key NSS contacts.
    •  Awaiting Results of NSS Board 
  • CA Chapters Resource Subcommittee(Ed Kulis)
    • Recent NSS Resources for Chapters Page
• High School STEM Contest
  • High School STEM Contest Page
  • Contest Press Release 12/10/23 
•  Update on Potential NASA grant application and SacL5 MiniCube grants
  • due to severe constraints on Paul Turner’s time right now, he and Joe Bland have agreed that Joe is taking over as lead on the “Sacramento L5 Society MiniCube Grant Program”, and will be integrating their two approaches to a submittal to NSS for a grant under their Blue Origin “Club for the Future“ STEAM grant program.
• General Discussion
  • The Mach Effect
    • The Mach Effect claims to provide propellant-less, reaction-less propulsion for a spacecraft, and the mechanism seems reasonable. However, it appears that the conservation of momentum is violated if the spacecraft accelerates. There’s the potential for much interesting discussion around this topic. 
  • The Dean Drive
    • The Dean Drive is another mechanism with the claiming reaction-less propulsion. No doubt engendering further interesting discussions.
• SacL5 Writers Group
  • No Meeting