Scientific Instruments & Payloads

An imaging instrument that records visible (and often near-infrared or ultraviolet) light — the eyes of a spacecraft, from wide-angle context cameras to high-resolution narrow-angle telescopes.

An instrument that captures both an image and a spectrum for every pixel, mapping the composition of a surface or atmosphere by the wavelengths of light it reflects or emits.

An instrument that splits light into its component wavelengths to reveal composition, temperature, and motion — the workhorse of remote sensing, spanning ultraviolet, visible, infrared, X-ray, and gamma-ray bands.

An instrument that sorts atoms and molecules by mass, identifying the chemical and isotopic makeup of a sample of gas or dust — essential for atmospheres, plumes, and returned samples.

An instrument that measures magnetic fields, revealing a planet's internal dynamo, a moon's hidden ocean, or the structure of the solar wind and magnetospheres.

An instrument that counts and characterises the electrons, ions, and cosmic rays of space plasmas — mapping radiation belts, the solar wind, and energetic-particle events.

An instrument that detects the tiny dust grains of space — from cometary and interplanetary dust to the particles of planetary rings — measuring their speed, mass, and sometimes composition.

An active instrument that transmits radio waves and analyses the echoes to map surfaces through cloud and darkness, or to probe beneath the surface. Synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) achieves high resolution from orbit.

An active instrument that fires laser pulses and times their return to measure distance precisely — mapping the topography of a planet, moon, or asteroid with height accuracy of metres.

An instrument that senses the tiny ground motions of quakes and impacts, probing the interior structure of a world by how seismic waves travel through it — as InSight did for Mars.

An instrument that measures the gamma rays and neutrons emitted by a surface under cosmic-ray bombardment, revealing elemental composition — and, through neutrons, the presence of water or ice.

A technique that uses the spacecraft's own radio signal as an instrument — tracking tiny frequency shifts to weigh a planet, map its gravity field, and probe its atmosphere and rings by how they bend the signal.

New Horizons's ultraviolet imaging spectrometer, which probed the composition and structure of Pluto's atmosphere as the spacecraft flew through its shadow.

Cassini's dust detector, which sampled the grains of Saturn's rings and the ice particles of Enceladus's plume, measuring their composition and revealing the moon's subsurface ocean.

Cassini's wide- and narrow-angle cameras, which imaged Saturn, its rings, and its moons in unprecedented detail over thirteen years.

Cassini's magnetometer, which mapped Saturn's magnetic field and detected the field perturbation that first revealed Enceladus's dynamic atmosphere and plumes, prompting the closer flybys.

Cassini's radio-science experiment, which used the spacecraft's radio link — tracking tiny frequency shifts and radio occultations — to weigh Saturn, map its gravity field, and probe the structure of its rings and atmosphere.

Dawn's camera, which mapped the giant asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres, including the bright carbonate deposits of Ceres's Occator crater.

Galileo's imaging spectrometer, which mapped the composition of Jupiter's moons and found evidence for salts and a subsurface ocean on Europa.

Juno's wide-angle visible-light camera, included partly for public engagement, which has returned spectacular images of Jupiter's turbulent poles and cloud bands.

New Horizons's high-resolution narrow-angle telescope camera, which returned the first detailed images of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth.

Magellan's imaging radar, which pierced Venus's thick clouds to map 98% of the planet's surface at high resolution.

MESSENGER's laser altimeter, which measured the topography of Mercury's northern hemisphere and helped confirm water ice in its permanently shadowed polar craters.

MESSENGER's spectrometer, which measured the elemental composition of Mercury's surface and helped confirm water ice in its permanently shadowed polar craters.

OSIRIS-REx's camera suite, which mapped the asteroid Bennu in detail and documented the touch-and-go sample collection.

InSight's ultra-sensitive seismometer, which detected hundreds of marsquakes and, for the first time, revealed the internal structure of Mars.

The Voyager cosmic-ray detectors, whose measurements of the sudden change in particle counts marked each spacecraft's crossing of the heliopause into interstellar space.

The Voyager cameras, which returned the first close-up images of the outer planets and their moons, and the 'Pale Blue Dot' portrait of Earth.