Presidential Hopeful Newt Gingrich Wants to Mine the Moon

Newt Gingrich, who is hoping to run for president as a candidate from the Republican Party, proposed on December 10 that America should definitely mine the Moon for precious resources. He was not in agreement with the other person at the table, former front-runner Mitt Romney.

While the latter said that he would oppose spending the billions of dollars needed to do so, Gingrich reaffirmed his support for this proposal, justifying this by saying that the United States space program used to mean something during his childhood.

“I'm proud of trying to find things that give young people a reason to study science and math and technology and telling them that some day in their lifetime, they could dream of going to the Moon, they could dream of going to Mars,” Gingrich explained, Space reports.

The former governor of Massachusetts, Gingrich holds a very critical view of NASA, and of state-funded space exploration. He argued earlier this year that the amount of money the space agency spent since landing on the Moon would have been better used for incentives aimed at the private sector.