(The Hill) — Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson said he doesn’t think Elon Musk’s vision for space travel to Mars is realistic during a Friday night episode of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher".

“I don't see it happening until governments judge that it's geopolitically in our interest,” he said in conversation with Donna Brazile and Andrew Young.

“But I believe President-elect Trump has some interest in Mars, so you might have another conversation in a couple of months,” the scientist added. “At some point, somebody has to pay for it, and just being interested in something is not the same thing as paying for it.”

Musk fired back suggesting that a trip to Mars would not just help respective countries but could solve age old problems for humanity.

“Wow, they really don’t get it. Mars is critical to the long-term survival of consciousness,” he wrote in response to the clip on X. 

“Also, I’m not going to ask any venture capitalists for money. I realize that it makes no sense as an investment," he said, responding to deGrasse Tyson's claims that venture capitalists would not invest in space travel to Mars. "That’s why I’m gathering resources.”

NASA has worked alongside Musk for years. His company SpaceX has a $3.6 billion contract with the agency and an $11.8 billion agreement with the Department of Defense over the past 10 years, according to the New York Times analysis.

 In a post earlier this year, the tech-giant said his starship to Mars would make life “multiplanetary” and added that the Department of Government Efficiency which he now co-heads with Vivek Ramaswamy is the “only path to extending life beyond Earth.”

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