Hamiltonian Mechanics and Relative Equilibria of Orbiting Gyrostate

We use a noncanonical Hamiltonian approach to study the equilibrium attitudes of a rigid satellite with N rotors in a central gravitational field. The relative equilibria of this system of equations represent steady motions of the body as seen in the body frame, and correspond to stationary points o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of the astronautical sciences 2007-01, Vol.55 (1), p.53-65
Main Authors: Hall, Christopher D, Beck, Jeffrey A
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We use a noncanonical Hamiltonian approach to study the equilibrium attitudes of a rigid satellite with N rotors in a central gravitational field. The relative equilibria of this system of equations represent steady motions of the body as seen in the body frame, and correspond to stationary points of the Hamiltonian constrained by Casimir functions. This approach leads to an algorithm for computing the equilibria, and simultaneously providing direct stability information, since the calculations required to solve the constrained minimization problem are also involved in computing the positive definiteness of the constrained Hamiltonian for use as a Lyapunov function.
ISSN:0021-9142