TASK ORDER NO. NND12CS03T FINAL DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF HEAT SHIELD PROTOTYPE PROJECT TITLE: MONITORING OF THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS (TPS) USING ROBUST SELF-ORGANIZING OPTICAL FIBER SENSING NETWORKS THE BENEFITS OF A SYSTEM SUCH AS THIS OVER A CONVENTIONAL CENTRALLY-CONTROLLED NETWORK INCLUDE ROBUSTNESS (THERE IS NO SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE, AND THE NETWORK CAN CONTINUE TO FUNCTION IN THE PRESENCE OF DAMAGE IN SOME AREAS), SCALABILITY (THE NUMBER OF AGENTS AND SENSORS CAN BE GREATLY INCREASED WITHOUT DEGRADING SYSTEM PERFORMANCE), AND ABILITY TO RESPOND EFFECTIVELY TO DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENTS. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE WORK IS TO BUILD THE PROTOTYPE HEAT SHIELD WHOSE BASIC DESIGN WAS COMPLETED UNDER TASK ORDER, NND11CS02T. THIS TPS DEMONSTRATOR WILL USE RESULTS FROM STUDIES OF THE ACOUSTIC AND THERMAL PROPERTIES OF CERAMIC INSULATION MATERIALS AND DYNAMICALLY RECONFIGURABLE (SWITCHED) OPTICAL FIBER BRAGG GRATING (FBG) SENSING NETWORKS. THIS WORK WILL BE CARRIED OUT JOINTLY BY THE DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH CENTER, THE LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER, AND THE COMMONWEALTH SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ORGANISATION (CSIRO), SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA. CSIRO IS AUSTRALIA'S NATIONAL SCIENCE AGENCY AND ONE OF THE LARGEST AND MOST DIVERSE RESEARCH AGENCIES IN THE WORLD. THE WORK DEFINED IS CRITICALLY BASED ON PREVIOUS SPECIFIC ADVANCES IN THE STATE-OF-THE-ART MADE BY CSIRO IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROPRIETARY ARCHITECTURE. NASA HAS BEEN ENGAGED IN THIS RESEARCH WITH CSIRO STARTING IN 2001. THE RESEARCH WORK WILL LEVERAGE OFF DEVELOPMENTS FROM EARLIER NASA/CSIRO WORK ON STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING, IN PARTICULAR ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DISTRIBUTED MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM DEMONSTRATOR FOR IMPACT DETECTION AND DAMAGE CHARACTERIZATION, WHICH WAS CO-FUNDED BY CSIRO. THE PROJECT IS AS FOLLOWS: 1: DESIGN OF PROTOTYPE HEAT SHIELD STRUCTURE A) COMPLETE OUTSTANDING DESIGN DETAILS INCLUDING DEVELOPMENT OF CRITERIA FOR OPTIMAL SENSOR PLACEMENT, AND ACCURACY REQUIREMENTS. B) USE STRUCTURAL MODEL TO DERIVE OPTIMAL SENSOR LAYOUT. 2: FABRICATION OF PROTOTYPE HEAT SHIELD STRUCTURE A) SOURCING AND ACQUISITION OF MATERIALS, SENSORS AND ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS. B) FABRICATION OF PROTOTYPE HEAT SHIELD HARDWARE (IN COOPERATION WITH NASA DFRC). C) CONSTRUCT AND TEST ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS. D) DEVELOP AND TEST DATA ACQUISITION, PROCESSING, COMMUNICATIONS AND CONTROL SOFTWARE. E) DESIGN TEST FACILITIES FOR CONTROLLED IMPACT AND THERMAL CONTROL OF STRUCTURE SURFACE.