Mission – Why We Exist
- Help enthusiasts find ways to contribute.
- Provide sources of enabling training to facilitate engineering prototyping.
- Establish a clearinghouse for the ongoing objective analysis of proposed space development technologies.
Meeting Details for each Months Meeting
Website: https://sacramentol5society.nss.org
Meeting Call: Sacramento L5 Society, Local Chapter, National Space Society
Where: Virtual presence only, via Zoom
When: Second Saturday, each month beginning at 6pm PT
Pre-Zoom notes:
•These meetings are recorded.
•Folks will be asked to briefly share their video, and phone callers asked to identify themselves.
•We use the “waiting room” format. If I keep you waiting, call me and bawl me out! 916-429-6252
Join Zoom meeting:
Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kbdpRGEmNm
Meeting ID: 868 9868 4719
Passcode: Ask Joe Bland email
Home Page: SacramentoL5Society.org
SacL5 Officers: Joe Bland President, Jan Rosten VP, Ed Kulis Secretary/Website Admin (click name to email)
Sacramento L5 Society (SacL5) – Meeting Minutes
Date: Saturday, July 12, 2025
Time: 6:00–7:30 PM PDT
Location: Virtual (Zoom)
Special Notice: Joint meeting with invited members of OASIS, the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Space Society
1. Attendees:
– Joe Bland (President, SacL5)
– Ed Kulis
– L. Paul Turner
– Michael Abramson
– Arlene Busby (President, OASIS)
– Kenneth Armour (OASIS, founding L5 Society member)
– Jan Rosten
– Additional guests and members
2. Welcome and Introductions (6:00–6:20 PM)
- Informal greetings and attendee check-in
• Recognition of visiting OASIS members
• Ken Armour shared a historical perspective of the L5 Society and personal reflections on early space advocacy
3. Special Presentation: SacL5 MiniCube STEM Project (6:20–7:00 PM)
- Project Overview – Joe Bland
- Collaboration with JP Aerospace
• Funded through Benevity donations and volunteer hours
• Goal: Develop low-cost MiniCube STEM education kits (5 cm cube)
- Educational Initiative – Ed Kulis
- CubeSat standard used for educational outreach
• Project page: https://sacramentol5society.nss.org/balloon-device-project/
- Role of JP Aerospace – L. Paul Turner
- Description of JPA’s high-altitude balloon system and Ascender-Dark Sky Station-Orbital Airship model
• JP working on life-support systems and flight platforms
• JPA willing to fly MiniCubes directly (~$500/flight)
- Discussion and Questions
- Timeline: Launch possible next year
• Costs: ~$100 project kit (excluding flight fees)
• Suggestions to involve teachers and colleges
• Constraints on teacher time
• Mention of Paul Turner’s YouTube music channel (@CleCurboSongs)
4. Chapter Business (7:00–7:30 PM)
- President & Treasurer’s Report – Joe Bland
- No progress on bank account setup
- Website Update – Ed Kulis
- Strengthening partnerships and visibility
- NSS Committees and Assembly Updates
- Jan Rosten: Voting in progress; Brian Gozal candidate; updates on NSS Centennial
• Ed Kulis: Awaiting NSSCA chapter resources subcommittee link
• Joe Bland: Updates on NSS Chapter Committee; discussion on chapter closures and funding
- Member Projects Updates
- Eric James: On vacation
• Joe Bland: Working on NASA proposals and energy storage patents
• Michael Abramson: Reviving ‘Open Space Organization’
• Gerald Nordley: Interstellar propulsion project
• Don Wade: Lunar high-gravity settlement proposal
- Action Items
- Paul Turner: Contact Ken Davis (SSES)
• Ed Kulis: Submit Benevity hours
• Don Wade: Artificial gravity concept development
5. New Business & Open Discussion
- Discussion of space news and updates
• Open floor discussion
6. Adjournment
Time: 7:30 PM
Next Meeting: TBD via SacL5 website
Contact:
Joe Bland, President, SacL5
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 916-429-6252
Project Activities
Projects in Progress
- Balloon Device Project – See: Details
- Project started for see details page created on website
- Eric’s Steam Engine
- Will run on compressed air.
- It’s a “Walking Beam” Design with fly-ball governors to stabilize speed with offset cams to operate the steam valves.
- White Paper on an Open Space Organization
- Development of White Paper on an “Open Space Organization (OSO) (Michael Abramson)
- Michael presented the current state of the proposed white paper.
- We will look for other names since “Open Space Organization” has awkward connotations and “Outer Space Organization” may be in use by other organizations.
- Here are a few alternative suggested by Michael and Joe:
- Open Outer Space Organization (OOSO)
- United Outer Space Organization (UOSO)
- Space Development Organization (SDO)
- Space Developers Organization (SDO)
- Outer Space Development Organization (OSDO)
- Outer Space Developers Organization (OSDO)
- United Space Development Organization (USDO)
- United Space Developers Organization (USDO)
- United Outer Space Development Organization (UOSDO)
- United Outer Space Developers Organization (UOSDO
- Organization of Outer Space Development (OOSD)
- Organization of Outer Space Developers (OOSD)
- Joe’s Projects and Patents
- Joe’s patent applications on energy generation, storage, and distribution still in process
- Patent office hasn’t rejected any patents and the process is moving forward.
Chapter Library
- Paul Turner Books
- See Paul Turner’s Publications at Cle Curbo on Spotify and Space Trade Update
- Quest for Sylvane to buy: Amazon.com Services LLC. To learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFK3R5JK/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_4GW4RK0NG26WJWD29GYA
- In the Garden of Mistress Bloom – Awarding winning SciFi Stories
- A debut collection of short sci-fi fiction that explores time and space with mischievous humor.
- JP Aerospace
- Tours
- NSS Headquarters at the Cape offers tours of Kennedy Space Center
- Breakfast on the Moon Series
- SacL5 YouTube Breakfast on the Moon Series
- The YouTube channel contains the series of video conferences that SacL5 organized from 2019 through 2023 to celebrate each of the Apollo Lunar Landing Missions.
- Websites – Cool Links
- Dark Sky Festival
- Meet the artist that shot a bouquet of flowers 30,000 meters into space | CNN
- A Japanese Artist Launches Plants Into Space (nytimes.com)
- Homepage | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center
- Webb’s Jupiter Images Showcase Auroras, Hazes – James Webb Space Telescope
- Andry Astronaut You Tube
- NASA Cube Sats
- Dream Chaser
- Books
- Rebecca Doyle is the Author of Our Moon
- Rebecca is a journalist covering the cosmos, with a focus on astronomy, space exploration, and history.
- The late Robert Compton, our SacL5 founder. published a Physics text book like no other.
- Design Notes Log G,O.D (General Operations Director)
- This is a text book like no other. It follows the mental processes of the lonely Creator, defining matter to enhance the experience of existence and then creating time to distinguish matter as it moves. The logic continues in this way to build the intuition and demonstrate the mathematics required in the first few years of college physics courses.
- Some of you may remember that thrill. as you learned the calculus of derivatives providing the symbols that could move the static structures of algebra through the pictures in your mind. Compton’s book continues this thrilling awe that mathematics creates as its symbols correspond mostly to the universe with enough accuracy to create houses and steeples and medicine and instruments to travel beyond the clouds and deep into atoms.
- Design Notes Log G,O.D (General Operations Director)
- A Traveler’s Guide to the Stars” by Les Johnson – Realistic discussions of crewed starship designs / timeframes for a feasible trip to Proxima Centuri in a reasonable amount of time
- “The Sparrow” by Mary Doria Russell – A SciFi novel about the first contact and a a trip to meet singing aliens living near Proxima Centuri. The meeting does not go well.
- The Alice Network – Women Spies in World War 1
- Fly Girls – How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History
- Goodnight Moon Base – What if every bedtime was a powerful inspiration for your child’s future?
- Rebecca Doyle is the Author of Our Moon
- Media
- Moonfall – Leave your physics back at home but if you like a series of mostly predictable travails to reflect dim light on your popcorn then go for it.
- Start Trek: Strange New Worlds – “Quality of Mercy” – Last episode of Season 1. Rich characters, deep references, thoughtful reflection on what qualities are mercy
- The Orville: New Horizons – Comedy but good
- Star Trek: Discovery – No universe too big to save and of course, need to save all multi-verses through all time…
- Severance – Hmm…, might that enthusiasm for work, plaques, and quarterly pizza parties really be for someone else?
