When you're on the moon, is it better to hop, skip, or run?

Inspired by movies like the one below from the Apollo 17 moon mission, scientists in the 1980s spent a fair amount of time figuring out the best way to navigate low-gravity terrain. They compared hopping, skipping, walking, and running on treadmills in earth gravity to the same activities at low gravity. Based on oxygen consumption, it turns out this giddy astronaut is right: if you're on the moon, hopping is the way to go! [embed]https://youtu.be/HKdwcLytloU[/embed] Hopping locomotion at different gravity: metabolism and mechanics in humans. "Previous literature on the effects of low gravity on the mechanics and energetics of human locomotion already dealt with walking, running and skipping. The aim of the present study is to obtain a comprehensive view on that subject by including measurements of human hopping in simulated low gravity, a gait often adopted in many Apollo Missions and documented in NASA footage. Six subjects hopped at ...