Posted on 04/21/2006 11:46:49 AM PDT by blam
When you're in orbit, which way is Mecca?
12:14 21 April 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Kelly Young
Dan Bursch, Yuri Onufrienko and Carl Walz pose with their Christmas tree aboard the International Space Station in 2001 (Image: NASA)
Malaysia's National Space Agency is trying to determine how its astronaut candidates will practice Islam in space. Three of its four astronaut candidates are Muslim, and two will be selected for a future Russian space flight.
Once in their orbiting spacecraft, they will circle the Earth once every 90 minutes. Traditionally, Muslims pray five times per day, at times connected to the position of the Sun in the sky. This will make prayer observance a challenge if they accept a "day" as being just 90 minutes long.
A similar problem occurs for Muslims who live close to Earth's polar regions where there are long periods of daylight or darkness. Islamic legal scholars traditionally say that in such situations, a Muslim should pray as they would at a particular, relatively high latitude, even if they venture nearer the poles.
"Any legal scholar advising these astronauts would have to simply pick various times that would roughly correspond to their morning, noon, afternoon, sunset and night prayers," says Alan Godlas, a professor of religion at the University of Georgia, US.
Minor ablutions
Additionally, Muslims turn toward Mecca when they pray. Zooming around the Earth at 28,000 kilometres per hour might make pinpointing the exact location of Mecca pretty tricky. Godlas says that orienting oneself toward Earth might be good enough. "There are instances where the prophet indicated a wide swathe; kind of a general direction," Godlas says.
And Muslims have a cleansing ritual, known as ablutions, before prayer. But water is used sparingly in space. Godlas says astronauts could force water between their two hands and then moisten the body during a minor ablution.
On Earth, it is ideal to have water running along the arms from the faucet, but water does not flow downward in microgravity. Godlas says that when water is not available, scholars have determined a pure rock could be used to wipe the hands. The hands could then clean the forearms, face and feet.
Saudi Arabian astronaut Sultan Salman Al-Saud flew aboard the shuttle in 1985. He was scheduled to look out the shuttle's window to see the crescent of the new moon to mark the end of the Muslim religious holiday, Ramadan.
Electric menorah
About 150 scientists, astronauts, religious scholars and academics are expected to gather in Malaysia on 25 and 26 April for an "Islam and Life in Space" seminar.
People have found ways to celebrate other religions above Earth. Israel's first astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died in the shuttle Columbia accident, was not a religious Jew, but he ate some Kosher food aboard the shuttle and observed the Jewish Sabbath. But rather than observing Sabbath every seventh sundown, Ramon followed the timings on Earth.
Walter Sipes, chief of operational psychology at NASA's Johnson Space Center, says that a menorah (a Jewish candle holder) has not yet been requested for a long mission aboard the space station. It might be possible to send a menorah with little electric bulbs, he says.
Streaming religion
Christianity has had a long history in space. Of the 29 Apollo astronauts, 23 were Protestant and six were Catholic.
Buzz Aldrin, a Presbyterian, gave himself Holy Communion once his lunar lander touched down on the Moon. And while circling the Moon during the Apollo 8 mission, Frank Borman apologised to his Episcopal congregation because he would not make it back to Earth in time to be a lay reader on Christmas Eve. Borman and his crew did read from the book of Genesis.
Now, if astronauts request it, NASA can send up streaming video of religious services. There is also a Christmas tree on the International Space Station. "For some, religion is very comforting and we certainly want to respect that," Sipes told New Scientist.
Fortunately, there won't be muslims in the future for this to be a concern.
Easy. Perform a (human) waste dump. Wherever it heads must be the direction of Mecca.
Perhaps we should put some Iranian Muslims in orbit and find out.
They are not found in Star trek..
A portable terminal (e.g., portable telephone) is constituted using a geomagnetic sensor for detecting an azimuth, and a GPS receiver for detecting a present position thereof. A direction of a prescribed place (e.g., Mecca) is calculated based on the azimuth information and position information, so that the calculated direction is indicated by an arrow displayed on the screen of a display. In addition, a prescribed message is displayed on the screen of the display, or it is produced as preset vocalized sounds by a speaker. The azimuth information and position information are automatically produced at each religious service time, at which a user, especially a muslim who pray, holds a religious service in the direction of Mecca. In addition, the portable terminal can detect a direction match between the direction designated by the prescribed portion (e.g., antenna) of the portable terminal body and the direction of Mecca.
Too bad we didn't think of this earlier, we could have made a fortune.
In space, nobody can hear you scream "Allahu Ackbhar!
(Via J-Walk)
Well, it looks like the land of the virulently anti-Semitic Mahathir The Moonbat is looking to go to the moon, so-to-speak. But with a space program comes serious, important scientific issues:
How do Muslim astronauts pray in space? Malaysia's National Space Agency is holding a conference to consider such questions as the country prepares to send its first citizen into orbit.A nationwide competition in the majority-Muslim country has narrowed the field to four astronaut candidates, three of whom are Muslims.
Two will eventually be trained and sent into space by Russia, and Malaysia's space agency - or Angkasa - said it had been scratching its head over how Muslim rituals could be carried out properly.
Performing ablutions for Muslim prayers with water rationing in space and preparing food according to Islamic standards will be among issues discussed, said Angkasa's director-general, Mazlan Othman.
Other complications with Muslim astronauts:
I'm sure they'll work all of this out.
It's not too often great subtle humor masquerades as the truth!
bravo
From orbit, look down at your @$$. Somewhere in that direction lies the heart of Islamic thought.
Not to mention prayer times. If orbiting the earth, how many sunups-sundowns does one experience in 24 hours? May as well just spend the whole trip on the carpet!
Just follow the smell.
by Penn Clark
There is a little known "first" which took place when man landed on the moon with the Apollo 11 space mission. Buzz Aldrin had been given a small communion set by his pastor to take to the moon in his personal preference kit. After the Eagle touched down, Aldrin took out the communion set, laid out the elements, asked Houston for a few moments of silence and took communion alone on the moon. I think this is a great testimony of how we should look for ways to honor the Lord in all we do. It is also interesting to me that the first thing man ever did on the moon was to take communion.
In space, no one can hear you stream.
I thought only infidels went into space.
Put the Kaabla in orbit and watch the fun at prayer times.
I can't believe this is even an issue.
Don't muslims believe the earth is flat?
And all the flames in the world aren't going to change that reality. Posting that you can find Mecca from the smell is just childishly bigoted. If you want any examples of good moslems, try our allies in Iraq and Afghanistan for starters.
Jews don't have horns either, and Catholics aren't subversives working for the Pope, etc.
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