While at the Instituto Nacional Tecnica Aeroespacial (INTA), our group was allowed to see numerous things which would otherwise be unavailable to most people and most students for that matter. The INTA program is much akin to the US’s NASA, primarily working on aeronautics design and testing as well as research based on findings from space exploration.

Within the aeronautics portion of the tour, the major parts that would be of interest to future students is to see the current unmanned aircraft, used in drone strikes, which Spain is developing and the testing area for the engines. The unmanned aircraft in particular were interesting as it was possible to see everything up close and understand the design goals of the engineers who are working on the improved models. Specifically what was of interest is how they were improving current designs for longer missions and for holding a higher payload. Much of what I remember was that by constructing a larger aircraft and by incorporating hydrogen fuel cells they would be able to extend the flight time, and that with a different radar system they could allow the drones to communicate back to a base without being in the line of sight of the base.

The portion of the tour concerned with life in space was particularly interesting as the astrophysicist guiding us though made the research a bit easier to understand for someone who has never dealt with any research concerning space exploration before. What struck me most was the research concerning replicating the conditions which simple organic molecules could be formed, much like the conditions of an early Earth or early planet that would sustain life.

Other research was concerned with whether or not life could have existed on Mars and it focused on what would be able to survive given that any water on the planet would contain large amounts of iron.

Overall the trip to INTA was very entertaining.

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Report for Madrid

The activities planned out for the Madrid trip were overall fun and I believe most future students would enjoy the trip as well. The trip to Segovia was the most entertaining to me, though I enjoyed going to Carlos III and seeing the labs and the presentations. I believe most students would love the trip to Segovia as it has a large amount of attractions to see in the same city, such as the old churches and cathedrals, the castle, and the aqueducts.

Considering how all of these were within the same area, it made for a fun and convenient trip as one could see some of the history of what happened to the region over time. Carlos III was interesting as we got to see the labs up close and the students there as well as professors who did research were able to explain the labs to us such that we could understand why they were doing the research they were doing.

In particular the materials lecture was very informative as it explained what types of properties would be desirable for certain components of an airplane to have and what types of materials would be useful for those properties. In addition seeing a chemistry lab there where research on modifying graphene surfaces was also interesting from my point of view as there is research using graphene surfaces and similar surfaces at UT. In addition the farewell dinner with the flamenco dancing and music was not only entertaining but something distinctly Spanish especially the omelet type dish. Paco was highly entertaining and made some of the more educational parts of trip fun, instead of the usual dry information one expects from guided tours.

If I had to suggest one thing to future students it would be to have working a cell phone, and to be certain it does in fact work. Despite attempts to set up my phone with my provider I still had no service. I believe that this would help cut down on the confusion a person might have the first few days one arrives in Madrid for this type of trip since one is still getting used to the city and the time zone change, as being in a new city, especially one in a foreign country can be confusing at first.

Despite the confusion of being in a new foreign city, the activities and tours planned out were both fun and educational and Paco was an excellent guide.