Dpto de Matematica Aplicada y Estadistica
Escuela Politecnica Superior de Cartagena, U. Murcia, SPAIN
Use of action-angle variables leads, in a number of cases, to considerable simplification when a perturbation method is applied to study the dynamics of perturbed motion. We obtain such variables for the problem of a stationary gyrostat rotating freely about a fixed point when the first two components of the gyrostatic momentum are zero and the third one is constant. The above results are valid for a rigid body if a specific constant is annulled.
Key words: gyrostats, attitude dynamics, Euler-Poinsot problem, action-angle variables.