Short-term Investments - Available-for-Sale Securities (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2019	Jun. 30, 2020
Debt Securities, Available-for-sale [Line Items]
Amortized cost	$ 117,159	$ 79,828
Gross unrealized gains	147	438
Gross unrealized losses	(2)	0
Fair value	117,304	80,266
Debt securities and equity securities, amortized cost	127,052
Debt securities and equity securities, unrealized gains	772
Debt securities and equity securities, unrealized losses	(2)
Short-term investments	127,822	80,266
Corporate debt securities
Debt Securities, Available-for-sale [Line Items]
Amortized cost	78,243	50,859
Gross unrealized gains	89	291
Gross unrealized losses	(2)	0
Fair value	78,330	51,150
U.S. government-related debt securities
Debt Securities, Available-for-sale [Line Items]
Amortized cost	26,966	20,009
Gross unrealized gains	37	118
Gross unrealized losses	0	0
Fair value	27,003	20,127
Asset-backed Securities
Debt Securities, Available-for-sale [Line Items]
Amortized cost	11,950	8,960
Gross unrealized gains	21	29
Gross unrealized losses	0	0
Fair value	11,971	$ 8,989
Corporate Equity Securities
Debt Securities, Available-for-sale [Line Items]
Equity securities, Amortized cost	9,893
Equity securities, unrealized gain	625
Equity securities, unrealized loss	0
Equity securities, fair value	$ 10,518

Debt Securities And Equity Securities, Fair Value

No definition available.

Name:	nstg_DebtSecuritiesAndEquitySecuritiesFairValue
Namespace Prefix:	nstg_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Debt Securities And Equity Securities, Unrealized Losses

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	nstg_DebtSecuritiesAndEquitySecuritiesUnrealizedLosses
Namespace Prefix:	nstg_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

DebtSecuritiesandEquitySecurities,UnrealizedGains

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	nstg_DebtSecuritiesandEquitySecuritiesUnrealizedGains
Namespace Prefix:	nstg_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Debt Securities and Equity Securities, Amortized Cost

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	nstg_Debtsecuritiesandequitysecuritiesamortizedcost
Namespace Prefix:	nstg_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount, before tax, of unrealized gain in accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI) on investment in debt security measured at fair value with change in fair value recognized in other comprehensive income (available-for-sale).

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 320
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121645371&loc=d3e27161-111563

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_AvailableForSaleDebtSecuritiesAccumulatedGrossUnrealizedGainBeforeTax
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount, before tax, of unrealized loss in accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI) on investment in debt security measured at fair value with change in fair value recognized in other comprehensive income (available-for-sale).

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 320
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (c)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121645371&loc=d3e27161-111563

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_AvailableForSaleDebtSecuritiesAccumulatedGrossUnrealizedLossBeforeTax
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amortized cost of investment in debt security measured at fair value with change in fair value recognized in other comprehensive income (available-for-sale).

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 320
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (a)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121645371&loc=d3e27161-111563

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 326
-SubTopic 30
-Section 45
-Paragraph 1
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121558606&loc=SL82898722-210454

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_AvailableForSaleDebtSecuritiesAmortizedCostBasis
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of investment in debt security measured at fair value with change in fair value recognized in other comprehensive income (available-for-sale), classified as current.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 326
-SubTopic 30
-Section 45
-Paragraph 1
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121558606&loc=SL82898722-210454

Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 320
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 2
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=121553693&loc=d3e26626-111562

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecuritiesDebtSecuritiesCurrent
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of investment in equity security measured at fair value with change in fair value recognized in net income (FV-NI).

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 825
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 1A
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=99377092&loc=SL75136599-209740

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_EquitySecuritiesFvNi
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Cost of investment in equity security measured at fair value with change in fair value recognized in net income (FV-NI). Excludes equity method investment and investment in equity security without readily determinable fair value.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_EquitySecuritiesFvNiCost
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of unrealized gain on investment in equity security measured at fair value with change in fair value recognized in net income (FV-NI).

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 321
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 4
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=120269885&loc=SL75117546-209714

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_EquitySecuritiesFvNiUnrealizedGain
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount of unrealized loss on investment in equity security measured at fair value with change in fair value recognized in net income (FV-NI).

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_EquitySecuritiesFvNiUnrealizedLoss
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_ScheduleOfAvailableForSaleSecuritiesLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancialInstrumentAxis=us-gaap_CorporateDebtSecuritiesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancialInstrumentAxis=us-gaap_USGovernmentAgenciesDebtSecuritiesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancialInstrumentAxis=us-gaap_AssetBackedSecuritiesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_FinancialInstrumentAxis=nstg_CorporateEquitySecuritiesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: