Wednesday, October 19, 2005
I was reading today about how the Hubble Telescope was focused on the moon over the summer, exploring the mineral content of moon rocks at potential future base locations. Basically, if there is sufficient ilmenite, then a human base can harvest oxygen, water, and rocket fuel from the moon, avoiding issues with payload overload. The results are in suggesting that indeed, ilmenite is plentiful. They have also found evidence of water ice near the lunar poles, which could be of use.
This is all particularly interesting to me as a Muslim because I think about what would happen to Muslims if mankind did something to change the moon. What if we established very reflective base camps that changed how light reached the earth from the moon. It could throw off the whole calendar. Fortunately, it can only do so by a limited amount, since a lunar year is not going to be affected by such structures. On the other hand, I've read sf stories where the moon serves as the base for an enormous colony ship. What would the Muslim community do if we used the moon as a space ship? Or if we blew it up, to make it easier for us to mine it? Would we find a new way to calculate months? Would we rely on astronomical data on what we would have seen if the moon was still around? Given the amount of chaos our community experiences around moonsighting three times a year (the beginning and end of Ramadan and the beginning of Hajj), I wouldn't be surprised if we all just never fasted Ramadan or performed Hajj again. Ok, yes, I would be surprised, but the upheavals could be really ugly!
I sense the buds of a new short story... ¶ 7:12 PM
This is all particularly interesting to me as a Muslim because I think about what would happen to Muslims if mankind did something to change the moon. What if we established very reflective base camps that changed how light reached the earth from the moon. It could throw off the whole calendar. Fortunately, it can only do so by a limited amount, since a lunar year is not going to be affected by such structures. On the other hand, I've read sf stories where the moon serves as the base for an enormous colony ship. What would the Muslim community do if we used the moon as a space ship? Or if we blew it up, to make it easier for us to mine it? Would we find a new way to calculate months? Would we rely on astronomical data on what we would have seen if the moon was still around? Given the amount of chaos our community experiences around moonsighting three times a year (the beginning and end of Ramadan and the beginning of Hajj), I wouldn't be surprised if we all just never fasted Ramadan or performed Hajj again. Ok, yes, I would be surprised, but the upheavals could be really ugly!
I sense the buds of a new short story... ¶ 7:12 PM
