导读:载人巡天，太空漫步，这是我们眼中的NASA, 其实不然，真实的NASA的研究很接地气，我们每天会用的隐形牙套，防刮擦镜片，配方奶粉等等，这些“接地气”的发明每年都会通过杂志《衍生产品技术报告》（Spinoff）介绍给大家。
Since it was founded in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s goals have been civilian.
美国国家航空航天局自1958年成立以来，造福于民用一直都是其目标。
The agency’s main objective, to explore outside our orbit, was part of a larger mission to provide "the most effective utilization of the scientific and engineering resources of the United States."
探索外太空是NASA的主要任务，而这一任务其实是NASA“为美国提供科技与工程资源最有效使用方式”这一更加宏观使命的组成部分。
Consider that a success: Each year, thousands of consumer products benefit from “spin-offs,” integration of technologies and processes originally developed for and by NASA.
每年，数千件消费品都得益于NASA的衍生品技术。这些产品综合了技术和工艺最初就是应NASA需求而产生，最终被NASA研制出来造福消费者。就这一点，NASA就是成功的。
That makes the agency’s existence a boon for the economy, pushing forward robotics and agriculture, medicine and computing. Plus, knowing there’s a little Space Shuttle in your electric toothbrush is just plain cool.
正是这一点使NASA有力推进了机器人和农业的发展，成为推动经济发展的一大福将。额外福利，知道自己用的电动牙刷中居然有一个小型航天飞机，这一点就炫酷了。
So, in 1976, NASA began releasing a magazine to summarize its influence on civilian items. Aptly titled Spinoff, each issue is 100-plus pages of essential nerd material and trivia fodder, charting the diaspora of space technology.
于是NASA从1976年开始发行杂志，总结其在民用产品上的影响力，并巧妙的给杂志起名为《延伸品技术报告》。每期杂志100多页，会介绍一些重要的专业阅读材料和冷门知识，记录航天技术的发展。
Like how the Viking Mars lander program informed winter car tire compounds, or silica fiber Orbiter tiles were repurposed to help jewelers solder precious metals. Because it’s clearly an exercise in justifying NASA’s funding, Spinoff doesn’t discriminate in its coverage; some inventions are incredible (cool suits to slow multiple sclerosis symptoms, 1993), while others are hilarious (helicopter rotor-inspired, and Glen Campbell-endorsed, acoustic guitars, 1978) or downright idiotic (ungainly, pod-like anthropometric in-home relaxation chamber, 1987.) Invariably, though, they are wonderful.
比如，海盗号火星探测项目是如何给冬季轮胎胶体提供了启示，又或者是飞行器中的二氧化硅纤维板是如何被赋予新用途用于珠宝制造：焊接贵金属。因为这些造福民用的举动使NASA有了筹措资金的正当理由，所以杂志的报道面很广；有些发明匪夷所思（1993年：有助于缓解硬化症的症状的清凉套装）；还有些发明则让人忍俊不禁（1978：受直升机旋翼启发以及格伦·坎贝尔的支持发明的原声吉他 ）；也有不少白痴发明（1978：丑陋的豆荚状适合家庭休息室使用的体温测量仪），但是不管怎么说，这些发明都很棒。
NASA has digitized hi-res scans of every Spinoff, cover-to-cover, and made the collection available online as downloadable PDFs. Just follow this link, then key the desired year into the URL (e.g. “1976.pdf”) and bask in all the retro glory.
NASA还推出了高分辨率的全本扫描电子版，可以网络上下载PDF版。点击下面的链接，在地址栏中输入你想要年份（比如，1976.PDF），接下来您就可以随意享用了。
