This paper presents a novel precision pointing strategy. The principal cont
ribution is the development of a fault-tolerant control which allows active
pointing to continue despite multiple failures. A six-axes active platform
is utilized to reject disturbances from a vibrating base to a precision pa
yload. A decentralized controller is proposed which converts desired rotati
ons into corresponding strut lengths via a decoupling transformation. The d
ecoupling approach allows for simple single-input-single-output compensator
design and for the incorporation of fault-tolerant strategies. The propose
d strategy was evaluated on the microprecision interferometer testbed (a fu
ll-scale model of a future spaceborne optical interferometer) at the Jet Pr
opulsion Laboratory; Pasadena, CA. Experimental pointing results demonstrat
e 50 dB of disturbance rejection at low frequency. In the laboratory ambien
t disturbance environment, this corresponds to a 1-mu rad rms pointing erro
r.