When it comes to rocket tests then there is a huge amount of detailing that needs to be recorded and when it comes to an organisation like NASA, then the requirement for recording those details is even more pronounced. In the proud tradition of one of the foremost space research organisations in the world, NASA has built a state of the art HDR camera so that rocket tests could be recorded with far more detail. The name of the camera is 'High Dynamic Range Stereo X' taht can capture the minutest of details.
According to a report in the website EndGadget, "To get better data, the space agency developed a new HDR camera that showed what's going on when the gigantic Space Launch System (SLS) rocket booster fires. Called the "High Dynamic Range Stereo X" (HiDyRS-X), it captured fine detail in the plume, which was "several orders of magnitude" brighter than what researchers had tested before. HDR images are formed by combining multiple exposures, which are often taken one at a time or using multiple cameras. However, the NASA team, made up of young engineers from NASA's Early Career Initiative (ECI), elected to use a single camera without image sequencing. By fitting it with custom chips and pixels, it can capture multiple images with varying exposures all at the same time. That allows it to compensate for the extremely bright plume, while remaining small enough to easily install on a rocket test stand."
When asked to comment on how the camera worked, Howard Conyers, a structural dynamist at NASA stated, "I was able to clearly see the exhaust plume, nozzle and the nozzle fabric go through its gimbaling patterns, which is an expected condition, but usually unobservable in slow motion or normal playback rates," It has also been reported that the organisation is all set to build another camera that would be able to overcome the definiencies of this particular camera.
