Parametric stability of a pendulum with variable length in an elliptic orbit (Q2197288)

In this paper, the authors studied the dynamics of a simple pendulum, with varying length, attached to the center of mass of a satellite in an elliptic orbit around the Earth. The case of the pendulum to be lie in the orbital plane of the satellite, is considered. They found two linearly stable equilibrium positions, one corresponding to the pendulum pointing to Earth, and the other pointing away from Earth and they analyzed the parametric stability (for small values of the eccentricity of the elliptic orbit), by constructing the boundary curves that separate the regions of stability from the regions of instability in the parameter plane. In their study $\alpha$ lies in the interval $0<\alpha<49/4$, and their analysis can be extended to any value of $\alpha>0$.