THE HYPERSONIC INFLATABLE AERODYNAMIC DECELERATOR (HIAD) SYSTEM BEING DEVELOPED BY THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA) IS A NOSE-CONE-MOUNTED INFLATABLE STRUCTURE CONSISTING OF MULTIPLE CONCENTRIC PRESSURIZED TORI THAT IS DESIGNED TO DECELERATE AND PROTECT SPACECRAFT DURING ATMOSPHERIC RE-ENTRY. THE INFLATED TORI FORM A CONICAL SHAPE AND ARE COVERED WITH A FLEXIBLE THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEM AS SHOWN IN FIGURE 1. EACH TORUS IS FABRICATED FROM A FLEXIBLE BRAIDED FABRIC SHELL WITH INTEGRAL REINFORCING CORDS THAT ARE PRE-STRESSED BY THE INTERNAL INFLATION PRESSURE (HUGHES ET AL. 2005; CLAPP ET AL. 2016A). THE INDIVIDUAL TORI ARE STRAPPED TOGETHER AND ATTACHED TO THE RIGID CENTER-BODY OF THE STRUCTURE THAT ACCOMMODATES THE PAYLOAD. THE INFLATED CONE CREATES A LARGE SURFACE AREA TO SLOW DOWN THE PAYLOAD AS IT TRAVELS THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE. THERE ARE SEVERAL ADVANTAGES TO USING THE HIAD SYSTEM IN PLACE OF A TRADITIONAL RIGID DECELERATOR. PRIMARILY THE MASS TO AREA RATIO OF THE SYSTEM AT ENTRY IS NOT CONSTRAINED BY SIZE LIMITATIONS THAT ARE IMPOSED BY THE LAUNCH VEHICLE AS IS THE CASE WITH TRADITIONAL RIGID DECELERATORS (HUGHES ET AL. 2005; WRIGHT ET AL. 2012). THERE HAS BEEN A GREAT DEAL OF STUDY ON THE STRUCTURAL RESPONSE OF THE HIAD SYSTEM (LINDELL ET AT. 2006) INCLUDING FLIGHT TESTS CONDUCTED IN EARTH S ATMOSPHERE (OLDS ET AL. 2013) LARGE-SCALE WIND TUNNEL EXPERIMENTATION (CASSELL ET AL. 2013) AND STATIC LOAD (VACUUM TUB) TESTING (SWANSON ET AL. 2014; SWANSON ET AL. 2015). ADDITIONALLY NASA HAS PERFORMED STRUCTURAL TESTS OF INDIVIDUAL INFLATED TORI (CHEN AND MOHOLT 2014). FINITE ELEMENT (FE) ANALYSES OF THE HIAD SYSTEM AND COMPONENTS HAVE ALSO BEEN CONDUCTED PRIMARILY UTILIZING SHELL-BASED CONTINUUM ELEMENTS TO MODEL THE INFLATABLE SHELL AND FOLLOWER FORCES TO MODEL THE INTERNAL INFLATION PRESSURE (LINDELL ET AL. 2006; LYLE 2014; LYLE 2015; LI ET AL. 2015; CLAPP ET AL. 2015; CLAPP ET AL. 2016B). SINCE JANUARY 2013 THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE HAS SUPPORTED HIAD TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT THROUGH STRUCTURAL TESTING MATERIAL TESTING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EFFICIENT COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS. THIS RESEARCH HAS INCREASED OUR FUNDAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONSTITUTIVE PROPERTIES AND KINEMATICS OF THE BRAIDED SHELL (CLAPP ET AL. 2016A CLAPP 2017) THE BENDING RESPONSE OF BRAIDED REINFORCED BEAMS (CLAPP ET AL. 2015; CLAPP ET AL. 2016B; YOUNG ET AL. 2016 CLAPP 2017) AND THE BEHAVIOR OF INDIVIDUAL TORI UNDER HIGHLY CONTROLLED LOADING CONDITIONS (WHITNEY 2016 CLAPP 2017). ADDITIONALLY UMAINE HAS DEVELOPED NOVEL AND EFFICIENT FE COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS FROM THE GROUND UP TO PREDICT THE RESPONSE OF INFLATED BEAMS INDIVIDUAL TORI AND FULL HIAD STACKS (YOUNG ET AL. 2016; YOUNG 2017; YOUNG ET AL. 2017; YOUNG ET AL. 2018).