Non-integrability of a model of elastic dumbbell satellite

We study the integrability of a model of elastic satellite whose centre of mass moves in a circular Keplerian orbit around a gravity centre. The satellite is modelled by two point masses connected by an extensible massless spring that obeys Hooke’s law. It is assumed that the distance between point masses is much smaller than the radius of the orbit, so the orbital motion of the satellite is not perturbed by its rotational motion. The gravity potential of the satellite is expanded into a series with respect to its size up to quadratic terms which describe the gravity gradient torque acting on the satellite. Two cases are considered with Hooke’s centre localised in the centre of mass of the dumbbell and at an arbitrary point along a line connecting both masses. It is shown that the first case appears to be integrable and super-integrable for selected values of the parameter of the system. In the second case, model depends effectively only on one parameter and is non-integrable. In the proof, differential Galois integrability obstructions are used. For the considered sysem, these obstructions are deduced thanks to the recently developed symplectic Kovacic’s algorithm in dimension 4. According to our knowledge, this is the first application of this tool to a physical model.