We enjoy the hell out of static rockets tests, but NASA doesn't do them for the lulz -- they're the crucial last step before a new booster launches. 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.