Boise State Students Take One Step Closer to the Moon

追加: 2026-06-06

[00:00:00]Testing a robot on the moon isn't exactly easy, but Boise State students got the next best thing. Their lunar robot recently traveled to Florida, where it was put to the test in a facility designed to mimic the moon surface. I caught up with the team to learn what they discovered.

[00:00:14]>> The robot can run pretty much on its own. They can be doing science or like building more complicated structures and it can kind of be doing all the like just hard sort of labor.

[00:00:23]>> The testing took place inside a facility that simulates the dusty, uneven conditions found on the moon surface.

[00:00:29]For the students, it was an opportunity to see how their hard work performed outside their classroom.

[00:00:34]>> We build pretty much the whole year without testing in the arena. So, when we show up in the arena, um things never really go how we expect them to. So, we kind of just take notes on all that and then come back.

[00:00:44]>> Like any engineering project, not everything goes exactly as planned.

[00:00:48]>> Oh man, um so many challenges. We have upwards of I think 20-something students, so uh it really puts an environment where we have to focus on communicating with each other.

[00:01:01]>> And while the competition is important, leaders say that the experience expands far beyond robotics.

[00:01:06]>> This gives them the opportunity to have a separate capstone project, a separate full system that has a lot of integration, larger teams, larger end goal for them, and really help strengthen their portfolio.

[00:01:17]>> For me, as someone who's interested in getting like a more of a career in like robotics or maybe in something that's related to space, I've enjoyed the like stability to be on a project that's has that like recognition from NASA, but also it's just a good technical challenge.

[00:01:33]>> And while the Bender 5.0 isn't heading to the moon just yet, the team says that the data collected during testing will help shape the robot's next design. And for these students, the experience is proving that innovation happening right here in Idaho can have an impact far beyond our state. Reporting in Boise, I'm Gigi Fierro.