Of Mars and Mecca

[korn469]

I can imagine that the possibility of people founding a successful Mars colony within the next century (though it's certainly not a certainty). So in 2115, if there is a Mars colony would the colonists still have a duty to undertake the Hajj? Also, how do you think people would customarily determine which direction to pray in so they can face towards Mecca as they pray?

[Bereta_Eder]

Maybe as mecca would be constantly moving with the rotation of the planet they should be moving around on the carpet too?

[Dauphin]

A conference was held on this very topic (given Muslims have and do go into orbit). I don't recall the outcome but it was probably "just do your best".

[The Mad Monk]

Yeah, Mars would be easy, just point in the general direction of Earth. The ISS is actually more difficult, since Mecca would be very much a moving target.

[Elok]

The ISS would be simple, given the zero-gravity environment; just make sure your head is pointed straight "down" at the planet. I assume you determine time of day by whenever your shift is.

[The Mad Monk]

The ISS is orbiting close enough to the surface that that won't work.

[Elok]

I thought it took ~45 minutes to rotate the earth, and maintained a consistent up-down orientation regardless. Down will always be roughly right.

[The Mad Monk]

The ISS orbits roughly 250 miles above a planet that is roughly 8,000 miles in diameter, that is to say, at an altitude of roughly 3% of the diameter of the planet; consider the geometry.

[Sava]

Maybe our large Muslim population would be helpful in answering this

[Proteus_MST]

I thought it took ~45 minutes to rotate the earth, and maintained a consistent up-down orientation regardless. Down will always be roughly right.

Pointing at Mecca would be difficulty due to this ... position of Mecca would most probably change greatly during these 45 mins ... perhaps someone should build a 3DOF rotating platform for the ISS that automatically points at Mecca all the time

[giblets]

If they're in the western hemisphere why don't they face downward?

[PLATO]

From wiki:

The Hajj is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, and a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey, and can support their family during their absence

Bolding is mine. I would imagine that it may be physically or financially impossible for a Mars colonist to make the journey.

[loinburger]

In Pitch Black some Muslim colonists crash land on an alien planet, so they use a future-sextant or whatever to figure out approximately where Earth was so they could pray.

[Proteus_MST]

I´d guess for a Muslim on the ISS it would actually be rather easy to travel to Mecca ...Ground Control just has to program the trajectory of the Return Soyuz Capsule so, that it lands on top of Mecca, instead in the Steppe of Kazakhstan

[giblets]

If Muslims living in America don't face straight down when they pray, does that mean that during Muslim prayer the direction of prayer forms an imaginary beam that travels parallel to the surface of the earth until it hits Mecca? Presumably the distance of the prayer beam is supposed to be minimized but do they approximate this by using mercator projection or do they take the round shape of the earth into account?