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."

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.