If a Malay gets selected as Malaysia’s representative when the Russians set off to the International Space Station in October 2007, not only will he be the first Malaysian astronaut, but also the first Muslim space traveller.

And as most of you would know, devout Muslims are required to pray five times a day, and to face Mecca while doing so. Herein lies the problem, as there is serious difficulty in determining the direction the astronaut would have to pray towards in space.

But it seems a Malaysian professor over at University Kebangsaan Malaysia has already figured the problem out, and has written a computer program to calculate all that needs to be known.

So, why in the world did I blog about this? Well, it was just so… unique, wasn’t it? After all, you’re not going to see a problem like this manifest again any time soon you know.