NASA Captures Rocket Flames Like No One Has Seen Before With A New Camera

Published 8 years ago

Recently thousands of spectators have gathered to witness the test of a new booster (QM-2) for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) – the most powerful rocket booster engine in the making. What they probably didn’t know is that another major test was taking place in the same place.

The booster test was a perfect opportunity to try out the High Dynamic Range Stereo X (HiDyRS-X) – a revolutionary new camera system that allows capturing extremely bright objects without darkening the rest of the image. It works by taking multiple slow motion videos of different exposures simultaneously and then combining them into one high-quality clip.

It has provided scientists with images that were never captured before, giving an insight into extremely hostile environments. So hostile in fact, that the rocket blast actually blew off the power supply for the camera just a couple of seconds after ignition.

The system is a result of NASA’s Early Career Initiative, which allows young engineers to lead projects and develop hardware alongside the professionals of the industry.

(h/t: nasa, gizmodo)