Starlink Sleeps

Starlink keeps getting new features with mobile users in mind, and a new feature continues that trend. You can now tell your Starlink to go to “sleep”.

This new power conserving feature was added just last week - and allows the user to program a sleep schedule which will stop the unit from using power for connecting to the internet and - more crucially - its snow melting feature which is a huge power draw.

Starlink Sleep Schedule UI in app Credit: u/FateEx1994 | Reddit

This is very clearly meant for Starlink RV users and folks who live way off the grid. Generally isolated users and campers use expensive propane for heating and limited power generation, so it makes sense that those people would like the chance to tell their Starlink hardware to not burn through their fuel just to keep snow off at night.

SpaceX made sure to warn folks that they’d likely have to clear the snow off themselves before their Starlink hardware could start up in the morning - but again, the type of people who need this sleep feature aren’t strangers to that sort of work - and the tradeoff is likely worth it for them.

SpaceX has been making pushes into the RV/Cruise line/Mobile space over the last couple of months, gaining new partners in cruise lines like the Carnival Corporation and THOR industries - the folks who run Aida Cruise ships.

The benefit of this newer tech is that getting lucrative partnerships with cruise lines will help funnel money into better mobile Starlink development - which RV and trailer users will benefit from - but also more remote regions like Antarctica, where researchers recently praised the system’s ability to connect remote areas.

And development of new functionality like the “sleep mode” is a result of that. RV users seem to be glad about it, I wouldn’t want to pay the propane bill for an all-night snow melting machine either.