I don’t get what is the issue with rotating cylinder and stability. As I imagine the cylinder, it has radius << length, thus his axis of rotation will be the one with the smallest possible moment of innertia and thus should be stable.
Dzhanibekov effect applies only to 2nd principal axis so should be relevant only for cylinders with radius similar to length.
This happened to Explorer 1, the first satellite launched by the United States in 1958. The elongated body of the spacecraft had been designed to spin about its long (least-inertia) axis but refused to do so, and instead started precessing due to energy dissipation from flexible structural elements.
I don’t get what is the issue with rotating cylinder and stability. As I imagine the cylinder, it has radius << length, thus his axis of rotation will be the one with the smallest possible moment of innertia and thus should be stable.
Dzhanibekov effect applies only to 2nd principal axis so should be relevant only for cylinders with radius similar to length.
picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_1#/media/File:Explorer1.jpg