Nasa astronauts returning to the moon should be given intensive cross-country skiing lessons to help them explore the surface more quickly, according to a former Apollo astronaut.

Harrison Schmitt, who flew with the last manned mission to land on the moon, said the technique allowed him to glide over the surface faster than his fellow astronauts, who instead adopted what he called an inelegant "bunny hop" gait.

"Once you get a rhythm going it's very easy," said geologist Dr Schmitt, from the University of Wisconsin, in Madison. "You can propel yourself with a push. On the moon you don't slide, you glide above the surface." He also predicted that settlers at Nasa's planned moon base will be able to experience lunar skiing holidays.

"Part of their recreation will be downhill skiing. I think there are some excellent downhill skiing areas," added the astronaut. He recommended the Taurus-Littrow valley as a potential destination for a lunar ski resort. On recordings from the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972 Dr Schmitt describes his technique to fellow astronaut Gene Cernan: "Too bad I don't have my skis! ... Whoo! Can't keep my edges. Shhhoomp. Shhhoomp. Little hard to get a good hip rotation."

He said astronauts did not have to actually wear skis, although taking poles for balance would help. "Settlers are going to have a delightful time on the moon. I wish everybody could share that experience," he told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.

Nasa is honing plans for its return to the moon by 2020, a mission designed as a staging post for sending people to Mars. The space agency intends to find ways of using fuel resources on the moon to avoid having to blast them into orbit from Earth. "We have to use the resources on the moon in order to be self-sufficient," said Peter Worden at Nasa's Ames Research Centre in California. "We want to use the moon to learn to live and work on Mars," said Wendell Mendell at Nasa's Johnson Space Centre in Houston.

The moon will also be an excellent site for siting powerful telescopes that can work without interference from dust in the Earth's atmosphere. Settlers will also have time to study the moon's surface for clues about the history of the sun and how the solar system formed.

Although President George Bush and the US Congress have committed funds for the moon return mission, Dr Schmitt is convinced that a permanent base will have to be funded partly by the private sector. The 1967 international Outer Space Treaty prevents nations from claiming sovereignty over any celestial bodies, but does allow governments or investors to make money by using resources they gather in space. Nasa's plans are based on developing a new reusable Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) to replace the ageing space shuttle. It will carry four astronauts to and from the moon, and could take up to six people on future missions to Mars. A separate, methane-powered lander will take the four astronauts on a seven-day mission on the lunar surface while the CEV orbits above on autopilot.

'Bunny hop' moonwalk video: www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/a17v.1670750.mpg