Dpto de Matematica Aplicada y Estadistica,
Escuela Politecnica Superior de Cartagena, U. Murcia, SPAIN
This paper deals with the stability of certain equilibrium solutions of a gyrostat with one fixed point in a Newtonian force field when the potential function is V² (this is achieved by taking only up to the second order harmonics).
We generalize some previous results of Rumiantsev on the stability of motion of heavy gyrostats.
Key words: gyrostats, attitude dynamics, stability, potential V².