Gyroscope is quite popular, one can even find it in iphone etc. But, is such Gyroscope the only way? are there any other ways to build machine that to measure or maintain the orientation?
Answer
No, they are not.
An example is the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft:
Only one gyro remained operational after this recovery, and on December 21 that gyro failed. Attitude control was accomplished with manual thruster firings that consumed 7 kg of fuel weekly, while ESA developed a new gyroless operations mode that was successfully implemented on February 1, 1999.
Some time ago I asked this question on Space Exploration.SE on precisely this issue; the answer by Mark Adler gives a good explanation; essentially, in space it is possible to determine orientation using only star trackers.
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