Blog

Meeting Notes

Home Page: SacramentoL5Society.org

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

Attendees: Michael, Gregory, Jayme, Joe, Joseph, Jan, Paul, Eric, Ed

• Greetings – New Attendees!
  • Gregory Liscomb (from Visalia, CA is also a member of the Tulare Astronomical Association 
    • Greg’s been a fan of pace and astronomy ever since he used to watch the Perseid meteor shower as a boy. He’s worked in IT building Data Centers for many years and is an advocate of Remote Working since it saves a lot of time and doesn’t use energy for a commute.
    • Greg also complemented the SacL5 website and credited it with his interest in attending the SacL5 monthly meetings. The website is interesting and clearly updated often.
• JP Aerospace
  • Introducing: Ascender H1 Variant Orbital Airship
  • This is the newest version of the Ascender orbit airship designed to carry cargo to space. It’s the final stage of ATO, the airship to orbit program. The H1 is the latest update in development of this class of vehicle and the directly result of decades of development and test flights. ATO is changing the very nature of space travel. MHD plasma engines
• 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 NSS Chapter report. Submission of the Charter report on time qualified SacL5 for an award.
  • 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.
    •  NSS has extra Ad Astra Magazines that they may send to chapters.
    • Chapter and Regional Representative elections are in progress. 
    • By-law change take 2/3 vote of chapter membership so it’s difficult to obtain quorums for change.
    • There’s a controversial proposal from the NSS that would require all new members to submit their emails to NSS. This might prevent people from joining if they are concerned about privacy.
  • CA Chapters Resource Subcommittee(Ed Kulis)
    • Recent NSS Resources for Chapters Page
    • Ed and Perri are drafting the Spring Resource Chapters Page which is also published in the NSS Downlink.
• High School STEM Contest
  • High School STEM Contest Page
  • Contest Press Release 12/10/23 
  • Joe Bland will follow up with the Sacramento School of Science and Engineering to determine their activity in anticipation of a May JP Aerospace MiniCube balloon flight. 
•  Update on Potential NASA grant application and SacL5 MiniCube grants
  • Joe combined the work on the grant application and is ready to submit.
• General Discussion
  • The Mach Effect
    • Ed and Michael discussed the conservation of momentum in a Mach Effect drive. Assuming traditionally that momentum must be conserves means that somehow the flow of electrons to each capacitor dielectric must counterbalance the oscillation of the connecting rod.
      • A followup here must would be to look at the magnitude of the forces and dielectric mass change and compare it with the momentum of the electrons.
  • Blue Origin might beat Space X to the moon.
• SacL5 Writers Group
  • No Meeting