Analysis of the stability of the equilibria of a satellite carrying a two-degree-of-freedom powered gyroscope with dissipation in the axis of the frame

Abstract

A method that enables a conclusion to be drawn regarding the nature of the Lyapunov stability of the equilibria positions of autonomous systems with partial dissipation from the nature of the secular stability and truncated equations of the linear approximation is developed based on the Barbashin–Krasovskii theorem. The method is used to investigate the stability of the equilibria of a satellite carrying a two-degree-of-freedom powered gyroscope with dissipation in the axis of the frame in a circular orbit. For the case when the axis of the gyroscope frame is oriented parallel to one of the principal axes of inertia of the satellite, the nature of the Lyapunov stability of all the equilibria, with the exception of a few branching points, is determined. It is established that gyroscopic stabilization, which is possible when there is no dissipation in the axis of the frame for certain equilibria that are unstable in the secular sense, breaks down when dissipation occurs.