  Isolation of spacecraft microvibrations is essential for the successful
deployment of instruments relying on high-precision pointing. Hexapod platforms
represent a promising solution, but the difficulties associated with attaining
desirable 3D dynamics within acceptable mass and complexity budgets have led to
a minimal practical adoption. This paper addresses the influence of strut
boundary conditions (BCs) on system-level mechanical disturbance suppression.
Inherent limitations of the traditional all-rotational joint configuration are
highlighted and shown to originate in link mass and rotational inertia. A
pin-slider BC alternative is proposed and analytically proven to alleviate them
in both 2D and 3D. The advantages of the new BC hold for arbitrary parallel
manipulators and are demonstrated for several hexapod geometries through
numerical tests. A configuration with favourable performance is suggested.
Finally, a novel planar joint that allows the physical realisation of the
proposed BC is described and validated. Consequently, this work enables the
development of platforms for microvibration attenuation that do not require
active control.
