Dynamics of a satellite carrying a point mass moving about it

We study the dynamics of a complex system consisting of a solid and a mass point moving according to a prescribed law along a curve rigidly fixed to the body. The motion occurs in a central Newtonian gravitational field. It is assumed that the orbit of the system center of mass is an ellipse of arbitrary eccentricity.We obtain equations that describe the motion of the carrier (satellite) about its center of mass. In the case of a circular orbit, we present conditions that should be imposed on the law of the relative motion of the mass point carried by the satellite so that the latter preserves a constant attitude with respect to the orbital coordinate system. In the case of a dynamically symmetric satellite, we consider the problem of existence of stationary and nearly stationary rotations for the case in which the carried point moves along the satellite symmetry axis.We consider several problems of dynamics of the satellite plane motion about its center of mass in an elliptic orbit of arbitrary eccentricity. In particular, we present the law of motion of the carried point in the case without eccentricity oscillations and study the stability of the satellite permanent attitude with respect to the orbital coordinate system.