Global dynamical behavior of a three-body system with flexible connection in the gravitational field

Summary In this paper, the global behavior of relative equilibrium states of a three-body satellite with flexible connection under the action of the gravitational torque is studied. With geometric method, the conditions of existence of nontrivial solutions to the relative equilibrium equations are determined. By using reduction method and singularity theory, the conditions of occurrence of bifurcation from trivial solutions are derived, which agree with the existence conditions of nontrivial solutions, and the bifurcation is proved to be pitchfork-bifurcation. The Liapunov stability of each equilibrium state is considered, and a stability diagram in terms of system parameters is presented. Received 10 March 1998; accepted for publication 21 July 1998