Gardening in space may have made some considerable buzz online last week, but will the possibility of mining on the moon create more virality? According to an NPR blog, a certain U.S. company called Moon Express is interested to take the step towards this project.

The California-based company showed a design of a tiny robot spacecraft that is almost the same size as a coffee table. It is believed to be capable of moving around the moon with just the use of hydrogen peroxide and several solar panels. They are aiming to send the robot to the moon on the latter part of 2015 to start extracting minerals of high value and importance.

For one of the company's co-founders, Bob Richards, it will require a lot of missions to the moon to get the mining done even if everything will go smoothly as planned.

However, South China Morning Post had an article written by Tom Holland, expressing how crazy the concept of moon mining can be. Aside from potentially being too expensive to spend on as a project, they believe that to fly the right mining tools and equipment to the moon is not at all feasible and this goes the same for bringing back minerals from the moon to the Earth.

Tony Milligan, who teaches philosophy at the University of Aberdeen based in Scotland, argued that moon mining should not be encouraged unless it is a matter of life and death, like helping the human race to survive. "I think we should look towards asteroids rather than churning up the moon or Mars," Mr Milligan added.

Other Interested Companies to Do Mining on the Moon

China is another country that showed interest on searching for natural resources on the moon. Astrobotic Technology, based in Pittsburgh, also has goals for the Google Lunar X Prize. Under the UN's Outer Space Treaty of 1967, anyone interested to join the game of mining on the moon is free to do so and pursue their goals.

(Video Credit: YouTube/Bantam551)

So what do you think of mining on the moon? Do you think it's as good as gardening plants in outer space?