NASA has tested a HiDyRS-X camcorder with an unusually high dynamic range

Shooting the tests of the Space Launch System accelerator with a conventional high-speed video camera


Shooting with a HiDyRS-X camcorder

On June 28, 2016, NASA's general contractor, Orbital ATK, at the test site in Promontori, Utah, conducted a second and final test of the launch accelerator of the future Space Launch System (SLS) super-heavy rocket, the largest solid-fuel accelerator ever existing. Everything went well, so the first test flight of the SLS rocket will take place at the end of 2018. Then, two five-segment accelerators and four main RS-25 engines will be part of the largest SLS rocket that NASA plans to use for the most important manned missions, including the delivery of an Orion spacecraft with a crew to Mars.

Accelerator tests filmed a variety of high-speed video cameras mounted around. Among them was one unusual instance: High Dynamic Range Stereo X (HiDyRS-X) - a revolutionary high-speed video camera with a high dynamic range that captured streams of flame from an accelerator in unprecedented detail.
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The project HiDyRS-X launched directly to solve the problem of shooting rocket tests, writes NASA. The flame of the burned fuel is so bright that it is almost impossible to remove its parts normally without drastically lowering the exposure parameters. But in this case, other details are completely obscured, including important components of the accelerator design.

A unique feature of the HiDyRS-X camcorder is that it records video in several exposure settings at the same time. These images are combined to produce a perfectly aligned image with an increased dynamic range.

The camera check turned out to be more than successful, especially when the recording was launched in an accelerated mode. At an accelerated survey in one frame, scientists managed to see the exhaust jet and the nozzle oscillations from side to side (gimbaling patterns). Such oscillations are regular, but they usually cannot be seen in slow motion or playback at normal speed.


Nozzle oscillation

Now the developer is constructing a second, more advanced prototype HiDyRS-X with an even higher dynamic range.

It is interesting that the engineer from the Space Center Stennis, who received the Early Career Initiative (ECI) grant to implement his idea in 2015, is engaged in the HiDyRS-X project - and now he has successfully brought the amateur project to a working prototype.