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How would a Muslim astronaut pray in space?

It's an interesting question and one which may soon be facing the fledgling Malaysian Space Agency, Angkasa. In an agreement with the Russian Space Agency, two Malaysian astronauts will be trained and sent into space by the Russians. They will also visit the International Space Station.

Angkasa conducted a nation-wide search of the mostly Muslim population to find potential astronauts. Of the final four astronaut candidates, three are Muslim, leading to the question of how they will conduct their five daily prayers, which require the individual to turn towards Mecca. Working out which direction to face is just one of the problems.

According to the Independant Online (Cape Town, South Africa), Angkasa will be holding a conference to consider such questions. "The two-day Islam and Life in Space seminar will begin next Tuesday and brings together 150 scientists, astronauts, religious scholars and academics."

Now whatcha think about that!?

Update: May o8, 2006

When you're in Space, which way is Makkah?

NewScientist.com news service: Kelly Young

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 Makkah when they pray. Zooming around the Earth at 28,000 kilometres per hour might make pinpointing the exact location of Makkah 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 Prince Sultan bin 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 Ramadan.

Talk about confusing!?

It seems that Mobily, Saudi Telecom's only REAL competitor, is not piggy backing their towers anymore. During the last two weeks, I've been seeing Mobily towers going up all up and down the Makkah-Madinah Road.

This means, firstly, that Mobily won't be having to pay Saudi Telecom any more percentages to piggy back their frequencies. That means, that all you Mobily customers will finally have TWO very long awaited things:

• Better reception, since Saudi Telecom allegedly used to lower Mobily's frequency strength.
• Better rates, since they no longer have to pay Saudi Telecom to use their towers.

In general, Mobily is WAY better than Saudi Telecom, they have better service and more efficient payment plans and are generally "Cooler". For example, Mobily plans, whether prepaid or monthly bill plans, all come with MMS and Web services. For Saudi Telecom's customers, you have to go the extra mile (or kilometer?) to get those services operational on your phone.
Also, Mobily's acquire quite a substantial amount of foreign GPRS (MMS sending/receiving ability) and GSM (voice call sending/receiving ability) contracts with foreing countries. Meaning you can send an MMS to almost any major developed country in the world. With Saudi Telecom you can only send MMS within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
As for the "roaming" ability to send and receive calls when abroad, then they both supply that.

I hope this little rant, and possible advertisement for Mobily has been beneficial, I don't keep up a lot with Mobily news since I am not a customer, so comments and crticizms are welcome.

Take care people...

P.S. There is another service out there that is available to mobile phone users, but I need to gather some more information on it before blogging about it, insha Allah.