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Sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets in one day could kind of disrupt your sleep if you

don't take action.

And this was the challenge faced by the cosmonauts on Space Station Mirror on August 20.

They covered up their windows to mimic the nighttime on planet Earth below.

This way they could sleep in their phone-booth-sized containers and tethered sleeping bags.

In a way, it was metaphoric.

As cosmonauts did not allow the news below to disrupt their mission, whoever was in control

of the USSR at the moment.

The crew wakes up on August 19th and August 20th, they shower, they breakfast, they do their

work consisting of scientific experiments, needed maintenance from 10 to 1 pm, followed

by an hour of exercise, gravity pulls on the body, and an hour's lunch break.

Three more hours of work, and then another hour of exercise, and the crews begin preparing

further evening meal at seven o'clock.

They have spare time, and in that time crews were able to observe the beautiful Earth below.

They could respond to letters, drawings, and other items that were brought to them.

Soviet citizens who had written them, whose letter they had, get an answer, and receive

an official USSR stamp from outer space.

There are also books for the cosmonauts to read, and they can talk to ham radio operators

on Earth.

Yes, two amateur call radio call signals.

U1MIR and U2MIR were signed to the mirror in the late 1980s, allowing those amateur radio

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