Dynamics of a tethered system near the Earth-Moon Lagrangian points

The paper considers the dynamics of a tethered system in the vicinity of the Earth-Moon Lagrangian points. Equilibrium configurations of the tethered system near all five Lagrangian points are determined and librational frequencies about the stable configurations are calculated. An analysis of the coupled motion, i.e., motion of the center of mass of the tethered system and tether libration, is carried out for the, case when the system is near the translunar Lagrangian point. It is noted that this motion can be stabilized by an appropriate variation of the length of the tether. It is also observed that rotation of the tether can have a stabilizing effect.