Photo by Kevin Jacobus Fourteen-year-old Nathan Gray of Milford and Ben Streeter, 15, of Bedford operate a robot during a demonstration at a press conference for Mindstorms Mayhem, a junior robotics team of 10 home-schoolers from Bedford, Hollis, Merrimack, Milford and Wilton.

CONCORD – The state Legislature honored the work of 10 home-school students of middle-school age from Milford, Hollis, Bedford, Wilton and Merrimack, who won a recent, robotics competition.

The Mindstorms Mayhem team will represent the state as one of 54 teams competing at an international competition this April in Atlanta.

At the invitation of

Merrimack Republican Rep. Peyton Hinkle, the students performed the “Mission Mars” program that won them the all-around award from the First Lego League contest in

December.

Nathan Streeter, 11, said the group learned that powering a permanent base on Mars with geothermal energy would work better than the solar energy that powers the current rover on Mars.

“It’s very reliable and quite safe,” Streeter said.

The group set up a tax-exempt organization through Milford High School to raise the $10,000 needed to pay for the trip.

BAE Systems is donating half the cost and Hinkle has made a contribution, said Bill Gray, one of the two coaches along with Ken Streeter.

“It’s been great to see all the creativity in these kids come out from this,” Gray said.

Other students on the Mindstorms team are Melissa Gray, 10, of Milford; Nathan Gray, 14, of Milford; Brian Jennings, 13, of Merrimack; Benjamin Krupkin, 15, of Milford; Jacob Krupkin, 12, of Milford; David Schunemann, 11, of Hollis; Benjamin Streeter, 15, of Bedford; Daniel Umenhofer, 10, of Wilton; and Victoria Umenhofer, 13, of Wilton.