A Hamiltonian study of the stability and bifurcations for the satellite problem (Q897164)

In this paper a system modeling the motion of a satellite under the second order potential is studied. In Section 3, the asymmetric satellite (the three principal moments of inertia are pairwise different) is considered. The existence conditions for the different relative equilibria are characterized. Using the reduced energy-momentum method, the stability of the different families of equilibria is studied. In the case of conical equilibria, an explicit parametrization is given. Furthermore, isotropy groups associated to the relative equilibria families are pointed out, and some bifurcation schemes for the different relative equilibria are described. Section 4 is dedicated to the axisymmetric satellite, which has two equal moments of inertia. Results regarding the explicit existence conditions for all possible relative equilibria, stability and instability ranges, and bifurcations are given.