Relative equilibria of tethered satellite systems and their stability for very stiff tethers

We study the existence and stability of the relative equilibria of systems of two satellites joined by a tether. Since tethers used in practice are ve ry stiff we consider a stiff tether as a perturbation of an inextensible te ther. We show that the equations for relative equilibria and the stability conditions are continuous as stiffness approaches infinity and limit on the equations and conditions relevant to an inextensible tether. We obtain a n umerical bifurcation diagram for a class of relative equilibria in the case of an inextensible tether.