A question of religion & engineering: how do you face Mecca if you're in orbit?

i'd rather not ... but also let's not forget that when religionists consider these (silly seeming) questions really really seriously, once in a while religious laws get loosened up as a result ... see "how do muslims do the fast at the north pole?" and so on (answer, decided 500 years ago: "ok, you don't have to fast if it will kill you")

in other words, if christians never worried about how many angels danced on the head of a pin, they might never have produced aquinas or pascal, right?

Right (xpost), and as long as that's the answer, it's fine. I don't think religion is stupid, just orthodoxy. Believe me, I was raised Jewish, and Judaism is probably more prone to ridiculous technicality than any other religion. But as long as you stay out of that territory, I have no problem with it.