NEAR was shaped like an octagonal prism, about 6 feet (1.7 meters) on a side, with four solar panels and a high-gain radio antenna also about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long. Its scientific payload included an X-ray/gamma-ray spectrometer, a near-infrared imaging spectrograph, a multispectral camera fitted with a CCD imaging detector, a laser altimeter, a radio science experiment, and a magnetometer.