Posted December 18, 2006 Idaho State University students Kurt
Anderson of Idaho Falls, Layne Drollinger of Rigby, Todd
Romriell of Pocatello and Michael Whitten of Idaho Falls don’t
just study on their lunch break—they build robots. But they’re
not doing it for free. The undergraduate students each received
$1,000 toward tuition and the group received $3,700 for building
materials from the Idaho Robotic Lunar Exploration Program in
association with the NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium and NASA
Ames Research Center. Their mission: to build a robot that can
simulate digging a trench on the moon, lay a cable and cover the
trench with material that will protect the cable from space
radiation. “It’s a chance to do something that could have an
impact on future generations,” said Drollinger, team leader.
“The ideas generated by the student teams at ISU and the
University of Idaho will be used as a research instrument in
order for NASA to build the actual instrument that will be used
on the lunar rover that goes to