Muslim nations urged to embark on space exploration

First posted 01:51am (Mla time) April 26, 2006
Associated Press

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysia's ambition to send an astronaut to space next year should inspire other Muslim countries to embark on space exploration, an Islamic professor said Tuesday.

However, Muslims who travel to space must tackle religious challenges such as performing prayers at zero gravity and ensuring their meals fulfill Islamic dietary conditions, said Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad, a United Arab Emirates-based university professor in Islamic studies.

"We are all very hopeful that the efforts by the Malaysian government will inspire other Muslim countries to inaugurate space initiatives," Ahmad said on the sidelines of a conference in Kuala Lumpur to discuss Islamic perspectives on space expeditions.

The only Muslim who has flown into orbit so far is Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan bin Salman, who went aboard the US shuttle Discovery in 1985, Ahmad said.

A Malaysian might be the next Muslim in space, as the government plans to send a citizen on a Russian-led scientific mission to the international space station in October 2007. Three of the four finalists in the country's astronaut program are Muslims, while one is a Hindu.

It is unclear whether the Saudi prince, a nephew of the deceased King Fahd, encountered any problems in determining the direction of the Saudi Arabian holy city of Mecca -- toward which Muslims are expected to pray five times a day -- while orbiting the earth on board Discovery.

Mazlan Othman, director general of Malaysia's National Space Agency, voiced hopes that Muslim nations could consider technical cooperation to send more people on similar expeditions.

"Muslim countries so far are not able to send an astronaut to space on their own, because we still need to partner with countries such as the US, China and Russia," Mazlan said.

URL: http://news.inq7.net/world/index.php?index=1&story_id=73758

Malaysia considers Islam in space

By Jonathan Kent BBC News, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia's choice of astronaut will blast off with a Russian team in 2007

A two-day conference on Islam and life in space is under way in Malaysia, in a bid to answer questions faced by would-be Muslim astronauts.

Malaysia is due to send an astronaut into space with the Russians next year.

The country's first spaceman is almost certain to be a Muslim, which raises a number of practical issues.

For instance, Muslims wash before they pray but not only is water a precious commodity in space, but it is also impractical in weightlessness.

Likewise, the faithful face Mecca. However, that will mean pin-pointing a moving location while in zero gravity.

And Muslim prayer times are linked to those of the sunrise and sunset, but in orbit the sun appears to rise and set more than a dozen times a day.

Serious discussion

Malaysia's science ministry has called together a group of experts to thrash out these and other questions.

It is being billed as the first-ever serious discussion of the issues.

It is in keeping with the Malaysian government's mission to promote what it calls Islam Hadhari, or civilisational Islam, which encourages Muslims to embrace education, science and technology.

It will doubtless be hoping that a conference of Muslim scientists and scholars debating such cutting edge issues will not go unnoticed in the rest of the Islamic world.

URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4941816.stm