A system to monitor the health of a structure, health monitoring sensor nodes, program product, and associated methods, are provided. The system includes an array of health monitoring sensor nodes connected to or embedded within a structure to monitor the health of the structure. Each health monitoring sensor node includes sensor elements positioned to sense parameters of the structure and to provide data related to the parameters to a health monitoring sensor node interrogator. Each health monitoring sensor node includes a processor or other means to reduce raw sensor data to thereby reduce communication bandwidth requirements and data collisions, and can include memory or other storage for storing the reduced data and an antenna arrangement for providing the reduced data to the health monitoring sensor node interrogator.