FCC Approves Mysterious SpaceX Device: Is It for the Starlink Mini Dish?

"SpaceX has received FCC clearance to operate a mysterious 'wireless module' device," PC Magazine reported earlier this week, speculating that the device "might be a new Starlink router." On Tuesday, the FCC issued an equipment authorization for the device, which uses the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi radio bands. A document in SpaceX's filing also says it features antennas along with Wi-Fi chips apparently from MediaTek. Another document calls the device by the codename "UTW-231," and defines it as a "wireless router" supporting IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ax for Wi-Fi 6 speeds up to 1,300Mbps. But perhaps the most interesting part is an image SpaceX attached, which suggests the router is relatively small and can fit in a person's open hand.... SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said the "Starlink mini" dish is slated to arrive later this year and that it's small enough to fit in a backpack...

On Wednesday, PCMag also spotted the official Starlink.com site referencing the name "Mini" in a specification page for the satellite internet system.
Today saw some interesting speculation on the unoffical "Starlink Hardware" blog (written by Noah Clarke, who has a degree in electronics). Clarke guesses the product "will be aimed at portable use cases, such as camping, RV's, vans, hiking... designed to be easy to store, transport, and deploy". But he also notes Starlink updated their app today, with a new shopping page showing what he believes the upcoming product will look like. ("Very similar to the Standard dish, just smaller. It has a similar shape, and even a kickstand.") If you go into developer mode and play around with the Mini network settings, you notice something interesting. There is no separate router. Devices are connected to the dish itself... I'm guessing that, in order to make the Mini as portable as possible, Starlink decided it was best to simplify the system and limit the number of components.

There are more Wifi details that have been revealed, and that is mesh compatibility. For those of you that might be interested in using the Mini at home, or for larger events where you need additional Wifi coverage, the Mini's built-in router will be compatible with Starlink mesh. You'll be able to wirelessly pair another Starlink router to the Mini.

Self Contained??

[chipperdog]

The need to come out with one that has integrated solar cells, batteries, and WiFi, so it can be a truly self-contained unit..

Fucking cool

[backslashdot]

Starlink + drone + tesla EV .. if I had that in my teens/early 20s FFUCK you realize that would have been fucking cool? Instead I had to go camping with a compass and a Swiss army knife .. couldn't identify 90% of shit or know where anything was. I mean literally nowadays you can point your camera at shit and it will tell you what animal's shit it is, when it shat, and where the edible berries it had for breakfast three days ago came from.

Dude I would not point my camera

[rsilvergun]

At something and hope it identifies it in the forest. With what I've seen AI do you could point your camera at a bear and it would tell you it was a mushroom.

And star link ain't that big a deal compared to just being out in the woods. Christ we had satellite radios when I was a to lad and I'm older than dirt. I don't know what drones have to do with Elon musk or Tesla because he doesn't have any of them in his businesses. And I never understand why everyone is so excited about his cars since all of the

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[backslashdot]

Have you tried the latest plant identification apps? They are better humans .. and I've tested that. I showed a leaf from a plant called lizards tail and one from a plant called piper betel to some people and asked if they could tell the difference (the betel plant leaf was slightly glossier) and they couldn't even tell it came from two different plants -- let alone what the species was. I use an app called Plantum a lot and yes I do cross verify with google. It correctly identifies a plant even when it doe

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[backslashdot]

It's understandable to be cautious about the reliability of AI, especially with instances of hallucinations and inaccuracies. However, AI has been evolving rapidly and offers significant productivity boosts when used correctly. Here are a few points to consider:

Complementary Tool: AI is best used as a complementary tool rather than a standalone solution. When paired with human oversight, it can handle repetitive and time-consuming tasks, freeing up time for more critical thinking and creative work.

Context a

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[King_TJ]

Right.... and one thing I think is being overlooked is that AI is performing better when it's focused on a single use-case (like "plant identification") than the "knows all, communicates all" nature of something like ChatGPT.

Re: Dude I would not point my camera

[ArmoredDragon]

I don't know what drones have to do with Elon musk or Tesla because he doesn't have any of them in his businesses.

I vaguely recall rsilvergun (or maybe it was some other slashdot Luddite) complaining that Elon doesn't hire any humans to man SpaceX ships. And I pointed out at the time that you really don't want to put anything anywhere near a landing rocket if you have any interest in making sure it's still alive after.

And I never understand why everyone is so excited about his cars since all of the actual tech either came out of public universities or other startups that made the battery tech.

Some of the tech in those cars, especially the self-driving tech, is advanced enough that several Chinese companies were commenting about how they aren't able to duplicate it and nothing they have comes c

Where's the mystery?

[ThumpBzztZoom]

It's a wireless router device that uses known frequency bands, known protocols, with a known speed, with an image in the authorization that shows what it looks like, which matches the description of a new product on the Starlink page.

And the headline calls it a "Mysterious" device.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

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[ls671]

Well, "mysterious" is sure more click baity for one...

More clicks, more profit...

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[chas.williams]

I am more curious about the antenna. I really don't think you can do much to improve the dish size. There's only so much signal per unit area.

Starlink hardware blog

[pahles]

(written by Noah Clarke, who has a degree in electronics)

Does having a degree in electronics (whatever the heck that is) make you more notable?