The Cliff Reconnaissance Vehicle: a tool to improve astronaut exploration efficiency

The close examination of cliff strata on Mars may reveal important information about conditions that existed in the past on that planet. To have access to such difficult-to-reach locations, the Association Planète Mars (France) has, since 2001, been experimenting with designs of manually operated, instrumented vehicles capable of being lowered down the faces of cliffs. The latest tests in the series in which the Cliff Reconnaissance Vehicle (CRV) or Cliffbot was used were conducted as part of the Austrian Space Forum's MARS2013 field analog project in Morocco in February 2013. Experimentation centered on vehicle configuration for maximum all-terrain capabilities; operational procedures, which included use while the operator was wearing an analog space suit; and imaging, mapping, and geological/biological feature detection capabilities. The exercise demonstrated that Cliffbot is capable of examining hard-to-reach rock strata in cliff faces but that it needs further mechanical modification to improve its ability to overcome some particular terrain obstacles and situational awareness by the operator.