Relative equilibria in the unrestricted problem of a sphere and symmetric rigid body

We consider the unrestricted problem of two mutually attracting rigid bodies, a uniform sphere (or a point mass) and an axially symmetric body. We present a global, geometric approach for finding all relative equilibria (stationary solutions) in this model, which was already studied by Kinoshita. We extend and generalize his results, showing that the equilibria solutions may be found by solving at most two non-linear, algebraic equations, assuming that the potential function of the symmetric rigid body is known explicitly. We demonstrate that there are three classes of the relative equilibria, which we call cylindrical, inclined coplanar and conic precessions, respectively. Moreover, we also show that in the case of conic precession, although the relative orbit is circular, the point mass and the mass centre of the body move in different parallel planes. This solution has not been known yet in the literature.