By adding a software patch, scientists were able to get other parts of the solar observatory to do the job of gyroscopes, Fleck said. It's ingenious . . . Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is in charge of evaluating ideas for preserving Compton. Goddard spokesman Bill Steigerwald said Compton, like the solar observatory, does have reaction wheels, but he said he didn't know if NASA could or would use them to replace Compton's gyroscopes. Reaction wheels weigh a few pounds each and spin as many as 3,000 times per minute to give a spacecraft momentum along as many as three axes at once, said Fleck.
Traditional gyroscopes are similar.
One of Compton's main science instruments, the Burst and Transient Source Experiment, was developed at Huntsville's Marshall Space Flight Center. Savage now says NASA hasn't set a specific date for when Compton's fate must be decided. It will be in the hands of Dr. Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for space science, after ongoing studies of Compton become an official report, possibly by early April, said Savage. Fishman said a recent analysis found Compton had made more scientific discoveries per tax dollar than any other NASA spacecraft. It is the only scientific instrument in orbit that can observe all areas of the sky simultaneously.