‘They don’t get it’: Elon Musk slams Neil deGrasse Tyson over Mars criticism

Elon Musk has slammed Neil deGrasse Tyson after the celebrity astrophysicist mocked the billionaire’s plan to send humans to Mars.

Elon Musk has slammed Neil deGrasse Tyson after the celebrity astrophysicist mocked the billionaire’s plan to send humans to Mars.

Tyson, appearing on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher last week, was asked how soon Mr Musk’s SpaceX could “realistically” achieve its goal of sending the first crewed missions to the Red Planet.

NASA’s Artemis program is aiming to send humans back to the moon using SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket, with the ultimate goal of reaching Mars before the end of the decade.

“I have strong views on that,” Tyson told host Bill Maher.

“My read of the history of space exploration is such that we do big, expensive things only when it’s geopolitically expedient, such as we feel threatened by an enemy.”

Tyson continued, “So for him to just say, let’s go to Mars because it’s the next thing to do — what does that venture capitalist meeting look like Elon, what do you want to do? I want to go to Mars. How much will it cost? A trillion dollars. Is it safe? No, people will probably die. What’s the return on the investment? Nothing. That’s a five-minute meeting and it doesn’t happen.”

Elon Musk and Donald Trump watch a SpaceX Starship rocket test flight. Picture: Brandon Bell/Getty Images/AFP

He added that “I’ve got nothing against Mars”.

“Here’s how we get to Mars — China leaks a memo, it doesn’t even have to be true, that they want to put military bases on Mars,” he said.

“NASA doesn’t have a spacecraft but Elon does. Here’s my spacecraft to Mars. We end up paying him to use his spaceship to get to Mars. So I don’t see it happening until governments judge that it’s geopolitically in our interest. Otherwise I don’t see it as just exploration.”

Panellist Donna Brazile pointed out that President-elect Donald Trump has expressed interest in Mars. The Artemis program was created in 2019 under President Trump and continued under Joe Biden’s administration.

“At some point somebody has to pay for it,” Tyson countered. “Just being interested in something is not the same thing as paying for it.”

Maher then joked that nobody would want to live there anyway.

“The point is you can’t live on Mars,” he said. “How badly would we have to rat f**k earth before it was worse than a place that’s 200 below zero, with no air, no water?”

SpaceX has developed the first reusable rocket booster. Picture: Chandan Khanna/AFP

Tyson said Mr Musk “wants to terraform Mars” but asked, “If that’s earth plan B, what did you do to earth that now you’ve got to go to Mars?”

He argued that “if you’ve messed up earth but you’re good enough to turn Mars into earth, then you can turn earth back into earth and never have to go in the first place”.

Responding to the clip on X, Mr Musk wrote, “Wow, they really don’t get it. Mars is critical to the long-term survival of consciousness. Also, I’m not going to ask any venture capitalists for money. I realise that it makes no sense as an investment. That’s why I’m gathering resources.”

Mr Musk has frequently talked of the need for humans to become an “interplanetary” species or face possible extinction.

In another post, he again took aim at Tyson.

“The real problem is that Neil decided to grovel to the woke far left when he got hit with a #MeToo,” he wrote. “You can avoid being cancelled if you beg for forgiveness and push their nonsense ideology. The truth hurts.”

China’s Zhurong Mars rover. Picture: China National Space Administration/AFP

It’s not the first time the pair have traded barbs.

Earlier this year, Tyson was forced to walk back comments claiming SpaceX hadn’t done anything “that NASA hasn’t already done”.

“What Elon is pioneering is not what is impossible in space exploration, he’s pioneering what was unrealistic in terms of price, just cost,” Tyson said in an interview shared on X in September.

“So the engineering is getting a workover, but consider that he hasn’t done anything that NASA hasn’t already done. The actual space frontier is still held by NASA, and it remains to be shown if his new ventures have commercial support, commercial value. Because if they don’t then it’s a one-off, and it’s a spectacle.”

In a later video on his StarTalk channel, Tyson clarified his position and praised SpaceX’s accomplishments.

“SpaceX has been advancing the engineering frontier of space exploration especially with the spectacle of the returning of the first stage back to earth so that you can reuse it,” he said.

Tyson said he had been referring to the actual physical frontier of space.

“What private enterprise have been doing, they’ve been going back into orbit, where NASA has been since 1962,” he said. “So does private enterprise lead us into space? I personally don’t see that happening because if you want to lead into space, what are you doing, you’re going where no one has gone before.”

But he said companies like SpaceX could play a crucial role.

“No one has ever sent a rocket to Mars that could have carried people, that would be advancing a space frontier,” he said. “Good luck, SpaceX. God speed to you!”

Originally published as ‘They don’t get it’: Elon Musk slams Neil deGrasse Tyson over Mars criticism