Sub-Riemannian and almost-Riemannian geodesics on SO(3) and $S^2$
  In this paper we study geodesics of left-invariant sub-Riemannian metrics on SO(3) and almost-Riemannian metrics on $S^2$. These structures are connected with each other, and it is possible to use information about one of them to obtain results about another one. We give an explicit parameterization of sub-Riemannian geodesics on SO(3) and use it to get a parameterization of almost-Riemannian geodesics on $S^2$. We use symmetries of the exponential map to obtain some necessary optimality conditions. We present some upper bounds on the cut time in both cases and describe periodic geodesics on SO(3). 
I. Yu. Beschastnyi, Yu. L. Sachkov
math.DG