On Friday 28 April 2006 17:04, wrote: > forward from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Akira Kawasaki) > > > [Original Message] > > From: What's New <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Date: 4/28/2006 1:51:40 PM > Subject: [BOBPARKS-WHATSNEW] What's New Friday April 28, 2006
> > 4. WHICH WAY IS MECCA? AND FOR THAT MATTER, WHAT TIME IS IT? > Malaysia is preparing to send one of its citizens to the ISS in > 2007 on a Russian mission. It will probably be a Muslim, so a > computer program called Muslims in Space has been developed to > answer these weightless questions. It wouldn't be the first time > an astronaut has prayed, but others haven't needed a computer. > A thought about the Muslims/Moslems/whatever in space. A device like a rotisserie that is aligned with the axis of the earth and hardmounted somewhere convenient would do fine. It would have to have a platform welded to its 'spit axis' . In replacement of the usual rare and well done controls would be a set of controls for a timing mechanism worked out to set platform to always face a point, Mecca, about 3900 or so miles from the axis of the earth given an input of the earth's true diameter at the latitude below the ship, the angular orbital velocity of the ship and the orbit height. Moslems/Muslims do not seem to be as hinky about possibilities of finding life among the other planets like some rabid Christians who seem to like earthbound superstition....just an observation. The real test will be when an M__ goes on a Mars mission. He/she might as well just face earth then. Similarly interstellar travelers may want to just face our central star whereever it is in the heavens to them wherever they are. Mars is all desert. M___'s may like the place. All kidding aside, all religions may want to pause at the news from Australia about the woman scientist who found nanobacteria with sizes below 20 nanometers for cellular diameter. She found these not only in hot rocks thousands of feet below the bottom of the ocean off Western Australia (drilling rig found them), but also fossilized remains of the same in Martian meteorites. She feels that nanobacteriums may really be the dominant lifeform on this planet in terms of biomass. She has found that these organisms are very tough, and can stand life in space inside rocks. This gives rise to speculation that life on earth here began out there, somewhere among the stars! Pteranodon
