Investigation of a solid body rotary motion as a whole (Q795524)

The investigation of global qualitative behavior or rotary motions of solid bodies can be of interest in at least two cases: (1) in the study of the evolution of rotary motions of celestial bodies, (2) when solving the problem of solid body stabilization. In both cases it is important to know the pattern of motions in phase space for any initial condition for infinitely long time intervals. Numerical methods, however, provide only a discrete number of trajectories over a limited time interval. In this paper the rotary motions of a solid body with a fixed point are investigated throughout the phase space as a whole. The system of equations that determines the relation between the configuration space topology and the global properties of solid body motions is derived.