Back in August, NASA formally threw in the towel on attempts to get its Kepler planet-hunting probe working again. With the probe down to just two fine-pointing devices, there was just no way to keep the telescope consistently pointed at the right field of stars. Apart from the pointing issue, however, the remaining hardware was all fine, so NASA said it would consider proposals for alternate uses of the probe. Now, the agency has announced that it has settled on one proposal and will consider putting it into its 2014 budget.

The failed hardware is called a reaction wheel, and its job is to exert a small force that can turn the telescope over time. At least three of these wheels are required to keep the telescope staring at a specific spot long enough to gather useful data. The new proposal would effectively turn the probe's solar panels into a third reaction wheel—though an extremely limited one.

As photons are absorbed and emitted, they generate a small force on the object doing the absorbing (it's the same force that causes some asteroids to spin). Kepler is powered by solar panels that are arranged symmetrically across the probe's long axis. If the probe can be oriented so that the sunlight strikes these panels evenly, the photons will exert a constant and symmetric force against the probe. Kepler's two remaining reaction wheels can then push against that force and keep the telescope gazing steadily at one point in the sky, just as it was designed to do.

There's one problem, though: as Kepler swings through its orbit, the Sun itself will eventually end up between Kepler and its point of focus. Shortly after that point in its orbit, the Sun's light will start striking the opposite side of the probe, where it has no solar panels. So, four times during the orbit, the probe will be completely reoriented and stare at a different part of the sky, each for quarter of a year (Kepler is trailing the Earth on its trip around the Sun).

The approach is already in the process of being tested. If it works, Kepler will lose some sensitivity—some planets will have orbital periods that ensure they're either never spotted by Kepler or will only be caught once over several years. But close-in planets and those with roughly year-long orbits should be spotted just fine. With four distinct areas of the sky observed, Kepler's "K2" mission (as it's being called) will also give us a broader perspective on the distribution of planets in our galaxy.