European Mechanics Colloquia - EUROMECH 38 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium 3-5 September 1973 The Euromech 38 Colloquium on Gyrodynamics was held on the new Campus of the University of Louvain in Louvain- la-Neuve, Belgium. The scientific and organizing commit- tee consisted of Professor F. Buckens (Louvain), K. Ma- gnus (Munchen), L. Maunder (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) and P.Y. Willems (Louvain). A total number of 36 papers were presented and 65 par- ticipants attended. Of these 11 came from Belgium, 2 from Bulgaria, 2 from Denmark, 2 from Finland, 12 from France, 17 from Germany, 1 from Israel, 1 from Japan, 3 from Ne- therlands, 1 from Sweden, 12 from U.K. and 1 from U.S.A. Participants came both from industry and universities. Especially the European Aerospace Industry was well re- presented. There were sessions on the various aspects of rotatio- nal dynamics. In all the sessions, both theoretical and practical aspects were considered.
The sessions were de- voted to Instruments (theory and technology, in particu- lar for dynamically-tuned gyroscopes), Rotating Mecha- nisms, Application of System Theory to Rotational Dyna- mics (especially optimal control and estimation theory), Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics (influence of elastic defor- mation, presence of fuel vessels, stability analysis and VI pointing accuracy). The presence of the participants on an isolated campus turned out to be beneficial and this developed a favora- ble atmosphere for open discussions efficient work and friendly social activities. We are very grateful to Springer-Verlag for publishing these proceedings in book form.