Attitude stability of earth-pointing satellites

Abstract

One possible motion of an unsymmetrical rigid body in the gravitational field of a fixed particle is described as follows: the mass center of the body traces out a circular path centered at the particle; one of the body's centroidal principal axes of inertia remains normal to the plane of this orbit, and a second centroidal principal axis oscillates about the line joining the particle to the mass center of the rigid body. This investigation is concerned with the stability of such motions. It reveals that, not only the inertia properties of the body, but also the amplitude of the oscillations must be taken into account, and that the problem is essentially three-dimensional, i.e., that incorrect results are obtained when only planar motions are considered. © 1965 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., All rights reserved.