What is the wake/sleep cycle for Mirs crew?
Mir’s crew follows the same wake/sleep cycle as its ground controllers in Korelov (formerly Kaliningrad), a suburb of Moscow. Times are occasionally adjusted slightly for operational reasons (timing shuttle rendezvous, scheduling EVAs, Earth or space observations, etc.) but for the most part the crew is on a Moscow timetable. Decreed Moscow Time (DMT) is UT + 3 hours and does not change during the summer for daylight savings. The official sleep period for Mir’s crew is 23:00 to 8:00 DMT, which equates to 20:00 to 5:00 UT. It’s important to note that this is just the official sleep period, some cosmonauts get by on much less sleep. My simple trick is to use my satellite tracking program’s terminator indicator (the line which indicates sunrise/sunset). If Moscow is in the daylight portion of the world the crew is _probably_ awake. If Moscow is near the terminator then the crew is probably in their presleep/postsleep time (or whatever the Russian terms are) and more likely to be available
