On Earth we pray and do 17 rakat (posturing on the floor) a day part of five prayers a day. But with 16 sunrises and sunset on the International Space Ship this comes up to 260 rakat. If an average prayer takes 10mins 80 prayers a day comes up to 800 mins or 12 hours a day praying….how much time is left to sleep, eat, or do anything!! No wait, sleeping is impossible because 10mins into a sleep you need to be up for another sunrise – you cannot have enough sleep – you will go crazy!
And don’t get me started with the direction of Mecca when you are flying at the speed of a bullet, they will need to create a rotating carpet that adjusts it’s direction during flying….do you see how impractical it is going to be.
Now forget the ISS and think on earth for a moment, continuity of work and research, for study and travel, has again and again been proving the impractically of Islamic prayer. Take northern countries, some with six months of night and six months of days. Nothing…nothing in the Quran or Hadith. Why? These places would have never crossed the mind of a desert dweller in Arabia, back in the 7th century. And because he did not know it, Allah did not know it. So, we had to resort to plasterers (Islamic scholars) to apply their fixes (Ishtihad) and invent solutions that many time they disagree on how to apply it. So some suggested they calculate their prayer based on the nearest “normal” time line (what is normal?), Mecca time, or place of their birth. And of course, none of these make sense when someone is praying “Sunset” and there is no sunset…or pray Night and the sun is in the middle of the sky!!!