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, September 13, 2025
Time: 6:00–7:30 PM (Pacific)
Location: Zoom (meeting recorded; waiting room used)
Website: https://sacramentol5society.nss.org
Attendance
- Joe Bland (President)
- Jan Roston
- Ed Kulis
- Michael Abramson
1) Call to Order & Opening (6:00–6:05 PM)
Welcome and margin for arrivals; greeting of new members.
- Joe shared updates on two engine-related patents and used an extending prototype to illustrate process.
- Patent process highlights noted: provisional filings (1-year window), sequence of publication (provisional not published; standard application publishes upon response), and shift from “conception & diligence” to “first-to-file.”
2) Reports & General Chapter Business (6:05–7:30 PM)
President & Treasurer’s Report (Joe Bland)
- US Bank account frozen pending tax/registration clarifications. Two EINs exist; clarification needed between NSS EIN and SacL5 EIN.
SacL5 never filed with Franchise Tax Board; as a corporation must file. Joe spoke with FTB for remediation steps (~11–18 months). - Bank has paper trail; awaiting callback from representative.
- Benevity: funds associated but not transferred; hours to be submitted after New Year.
SacL5 Website Update (Ed Kulis)
- Brief status update; no blocking issues noted.
NSS Chapters’ Assembly (Jan Roston)
- Focus on Chapter Resources; encourage Perri coordination and reduction of inactive chapter sites.
- Encourage photo submissions to Perri; copyright caution.
- Bill.com may streamline chapter rebates.
NSS planning Fall advocacy meeting in Washington, DC; emphasis on unified messaging and communication impact tiers.
White Paper: Open Space Organization (OSO) — Lead: Michael Abramson
- Artemis Accords are strong for states, but OSO extends to private, NGO, and individual actors.
- Focus: mutual aid, transparency, interoperability, and consensus-based governance.
- Proposed structure: permanent members have veto; MRC final authority via approval voting.
Joe to draft Lunar Power Utility case study; Ed to post OSO materials when publishing pipeline ready.
Old Business
- Continue MiniCube balloon flight design (Ed Kulis, Paul Turner)
- Eric’s steam engine finished (Eric James)
- Space Radiation Hazards—coordination with Jane Shevtsov (OASIS)
- NASA grant application tracking (Joe Bland)
- Earth-gravity lunar settlement concepts (Joe Bland, Don Wade)
- Propulsion system discussion (Gerald Nordley, Joe Bland)
Action Items Summary
Task | Owner | Notes/Target |
Resolve frozen bank account; clarify EIN usage | Joe Bland | FTB filings (11–18 months); bank callback pending |
Submit Benevity hours | Ed Kulis | After New Year |
Contact Ken Davis (Sacramento SES) | Paul Turner | Outreach planned |
Draft advocacy text for Congress | Unassigned |
|
Provide Senate contact template | Joe Bland | Support member outreach |
Coordinate with Perri on Chapter Resources | Jan Roston | Clarify structure, reduce zombie sites |
Submit photos to Perri | All / Jan Roston | Respect copyright |
Post OSO materials | Ed Kulis | When publishing pipeline ready |
Draft Lunar Power Utility case study | Joe Bland | Example for OSO white paper |
Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 7:30 PM.
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?
