Nate Maas

Med Device

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

The signal strength hitting Earth from Voyager 1 is less than one trillionth of a watt.

To put that in perspective, your phone’s WiFi signal is roughly 100 billion times stronger, and it drops a connection walking between rooms.

NASA picks up Voyager’s whisper using arrays of 70-meter antennas, then reconstructs coherent data from it at 160 bits per second. That’s slower than a 1990s modem. Downloading a single photograph at that rate would take weeks.

The spacecraft itself runs on 8.8 kg of decaying plutonium-238 that generated 470 watts at launch in 1977. Today it produces roughly 200 watts, losing about 4 watts per year. NASA has been shutting down instruments one by one since the 1980s to keep the math working. They turned off the cosmic ray sensor just this year.

And here’s the part nobody’s talking about: there is exactly one antenna on Earth that can send commands to Voyager. Deep Space Station 43 in Canberra. It went offline for major upgrades from May 2025 through early 2026. During that window, if Voyager had a critical fault, the team would have had to wait months to respond.

A 48-year-old spacecraft built on 1970s computing, running on a plutonium battery that’s lost 60% of its output, transmitting at a power level that barely qualifies as existing, from a distance where light itself takes 23 hours to arrive. And a German observatory just casually picked up its carrier signal on a live stream.

The engineering margin NASA built into this mission was designed for 4 years to Saturn. Everything after that is borrowed time the engineers keep extending by doing math with 200 watts.

[X Freeze @XFreeze]

This is more advanced than you think

Tesla’s Texas lithium refinery is the first in North America to convert raw spodumene ore directly into battery-grade lithium hydroxide, skipping the intermediate steps the rest of the industry relies on

It went from groundbreaking to first production in just 19 months, an unheard-of timeline at this scale

The process is cleaner too:
no hazardous sodium sulfate waste, and a useful byproduct that can be turned into concrete

This single refinery can supply lithium for over 500,000 EVs per year and directly challenges China’s ~60% grip on global lithium refining

One of the biggest bottlenecks in the EV supply chain just got an upgrade

[Utah Mammoth @utahmammoth]

A new Ice Age dawns. Introducing Utah Mammoth.

#TusksUp

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

And this is MAKING HISTORY.

It worked at the first test!

[Steve Jurvetson @FutureJurvetson]

OK Boomers
In this iPhone video by @JCyrier from our vantage point to the south, you can see the sonic boom in the air at 20 seconds and hear it BOOM at 47 seconds. Incredible body feel.

“A sky scraper went into space, returned to earth, and parallel parked” - Sylvia Smith

[Clo @_c_l_o__]

we’ll miss you forever @MacMiller

[Zach Halverson @ZachHalverson]

One of the biggest upsets in Minnesota High School Hockey history.

Chanhassen defeats No. 1 & undefeated Minnetonka 2-1 and will head to the state tournament for the first time in program history.

Unbelievable!

[World of Art and Culture @worldartira]

@Rainmaker1973 Carl Sagan calling out the mainstream media in 1987.

[Super 70s Sports @Super70sSports]

This may be the most impressive two minutes of ineptitude I’ve ever seen in my entire life …

[Vince Z. Mercogliano @vzmercogliano]

This was pretty bad ass from Trouba.

You can chirp me all you want. Now watch me light up your teammate right in your grill lol.

[Eric Thompson @eric_j_thompson]

Imagine having to go over your freaking cadence with an OL you've never even practiced with moments before going out and hanging 28 points on the NFL's sixth ranked defense.

My mind is still boggled.

[𝙆𝙖𝙨𝙚 @verysadvikings]

That “an error occurred with our xray machine, Kirk Cousins has a rolled ankle and doesn’t need season ending surgery” tweet is gonna move mountains.

[Field Yates @FieldYates]

Kirk Cousins could tell instantly his injury was bad. He probably knew he tore his Achilles right away.

Just as the cart is about to take him to the locker room and with his season over, you can see him look up in a key moment and cheer on his team as they battle for a division win.

I’ll always respect Kirk. Helluva teammate and leader.

[Boston Scientific @bostonsci]

With each patient success story we celebrated at our Arden Hills, Maple Grove and Marlborough Everyone Makes an Impact (EMAI) events, we recognize it starts with our employees. Thank you for investing your minds, hearts and hands to further our mission and transform lives.

[Nate Maas @MaasNate]

Getting ready to be loyal and cheer for Minnesota sports after moving to California.

[Maple Lake Lakers @MapleLakeLakers]

STATE CHAMPS!!!!!!

[STEM @stem_feed]

Engineers from the past

[NCAA Division III @NCAADIII]

🏆NATIONAL CHAMPION🏆

@UWECblugolds Catie Fobbe wins the women’s shot put with a throw of 15.04 meters!

#d3tf | #WhyD3

[caleb truax @GoldenCalebT]

Come out to Duffy's Bar & Grill in Osseo this Thursday 3/2, grab an 8 Count on tap and hang out! 🍻🥊🍻
4:30-6:30

[Boyan Slat @BoyanSlat]

As you are reading this, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is being cleaned at a rate of one football field worth of ocean every 10 seconds.