On the equilibria of rigid spacecraft with rotors (Q792937)

The authors consider a rigid spacecraft with three motor-driven rotors governed by the equations (1) \(\dot h_ v=S(J_ a^{v-1}h_ v)[h_ v+h_ w],\) \(\dot h{}_ w=0\), where for a vector \(x=(x_ 1,x_ 2,x_ 3)'\in R^ 3,\) S(x) denotes the 3\(\times 3\) matrix with entries \(a_{11}=a_{22}=a_{33}=0\), \(a_{12}=x_{31}\), \(a_{13}=-x_ 2\), \(a_{21}=-x_ 3\), \(a_{23}=x_ 1\), \(a_{31}=x_ 2\), \(a_{32}=-x_ 1\). The following two \(problems\) \((P{}_ 1)\) Determine the structure of the set of equilibrium points of \((1);\) \((P{}_ 2)\) Determine conditions on the parameter \(h_ w\) such that there are precisely two equilibrium points (on the momentum sphere) are studied. The results are based on the following Lemma 1. The set of equilibrium points of \((1,\square)\) is given by \(h_ v=h-h_ w,\) where \(h\in \sum_{\mu,h_ w}\) with \[ \sum_{\mu,h_ w}=\{h:\| h\|^ 2=\mu^ 2,\quad(J_ a^{v-1}-I)h=J_ a^{v-1}h_ w),\quad for\quad some\quad \lambda \in R\}. \] Both asymmetric and symmetric spacecrafts are considered. Also an interesting application is presented.