If you don't know the direction of the Kaaba', then you try approximating. if you can't, then pray facing any direction. I don't know where the other ones come from, but this is not coming from the council, but a hadeeth.

which includes the delightful checklist for how to orient yourself for daily prayers: towards the kaaba if you can, if not then the kaaba’s projection

In Low Earth Orbit (LEO) where the ISS orbits, its only about 200 miles straight up. It also makes a complete orbit of the Earth every 90 minutes with the Earth rotating underneath it to produce a zig zag pattern to an observer on a flat plane.

Because the ISS and the Earth are moving so fast, that would mean if you were oriented properly facing Kaaba when you started your prayer, pretty quickly during your prayer you're not going to be facing it anymore. Is the prayer still proper as long as it starts when you're facing Kaaba? Do you have to reorient yourself at the beginning of the next prayer?

I suppose with only the friction of air in the ISS against your body and you waited until the ISS was at apogee or perigee you could get one of your fellow Astronauts/Cosmonauts to orient you and impart a very slow rotation on your body matching the half the orbital period while being pointed to Kaaba's (projection into space). That would buy you 45 minutes at the most assuming you're at apogee or perigee. Hmm, there would also have to be a few orbits this wouldn't work where Kaaba would be "east" relative to the Astronaut at apogee, but transits Kaaba during the orbit causing Kaaba to then be behind the Astronaut or now "west".

Its a fascinating problem!

God we're a weird fucking species aren't we?

I'm showing my bias, I hope not to offend: how does someone understanding/expert in enough math and science to become an astronaut still believe that the magic sky man cares what direction he bows in during prayer or when he eats? If it's cultural significance I can understand that, but otherwise I just can't comprehend how you can have such a dissonance between empiric study/career and fundamentalist religious belief

Coincidentally I asked this question to a very dedicated and educated Muslim just a few days ago. He said that using Mekka time is something some do, but most scholars agree that using the time of the next reasonable city is probably better.

So they should starve? The religion itself says self harm is forbidden. If it comes between disobeying religion and self harm you should choose disobeying religion. For example if you are starving you are permitted to eat non halal food.

I feel you misunderstood my comment. The context is that moslems have the rule not to eat before sunset during Ramadan which is difficult if the sun doesn't set. All they judge is themselves. They feel guilty for not living up to their standards but finding a "cheat" if you will which isn't fundamentalist at all, just normal practice

Thanks. Sometimes I'm just stupid

But what direction do you face when doing daily prayers if you're on Mars?