Neil deGrasse Tyson: Skeptical Of Elon Musk's Mars Plans | Larry King Now | Ora.TV

Neil deGrasse Tyson explains why the government should be funding Mars missions before businessmen, and why we need boundary-pushers like Elon Musk and Richard Branson.


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[sacr]

LArry King will always be the best interviewer. Why? Because did you hear what he said while Neil was talking? no? nothing? exactly.. this guy doesn't interrupt, he listens, he lets them talk. A real interviewer

[julittok]

For all of you criticizing Mr. Neil know this, he is not against Space X, he is skeptical. And he is because unlike all of us youtubers with ZERO knowledge in astrophysics he is well aware of the risks that exist out there and the technical difficulties that they entail. One thing is making rendezvous with the ISS and another is mounting a manned mission to another planet where everything you do is being done for the first time in history.

[moonspellsdumb]

This isn't the first time he put down Elon musk. I think it should be pointed out that he works for the government and that many senators are upset that the sls has competition from boeing and spacex.

[Giggidygiggidy]

The comments here are failing to grasp Degrasse' comments to Larry. He is not putting down Musk at all, he is making a statement about the historical facts of these types of Endeavors (pun intended). All he said was, he's skeptical Musk will accomplish his goals as originally outlined. I would argue that Musk may even agree with him, but Musk knows he had to start somewhere and SpaceX is somewhere. What this all turns into nobody knows including Musk but it's that vision that opens those gates which Degrasse admitted. It's like you guys don't bother understanding what was stated you just start hurtling opinions that he's putting down or bashing Elon when that is not even close to being accurate.

[hcpiano]

Ok, so he is glad but skeptical. nothing wrong with that. Its not like he is against the project. We now have NASA and Space-X. Yey! lets cooperate and do amazing new shit in the universe. ^_^

[jimhanna]

I just love Neil's train of thought. I have watched many of his videos, and it is amazing how his, and my train of thoughts run so close.  keep them coming sir, I for one well never get tired listening.

[melquizedec]

Old way of thinking, Tyson. New private companies are leading big jumps on technology these days. (Space X landed the first space rocket, not the USA - NASA)

[quagmire]

A lot of people seem to be missing Neil's point, which is a good one mainly.

Granted, SpaceX is a private company, but most of its funding is public. Whether something is private or public isn't even the issue. Its whether or not its limited by commercial success. The majority of funding for research across the world, comes from the government, and therefore our tax dollars.

You can't make certain things be driven by profit, science is one of those. Research is not profitable. Mainly because you don't get anything back thats going to make you millions or even billions. You're rarely finding anything thats going to boom the economy. Every once in a while you do, but because its largely not a profitable way of making money, it wouldn't work if it didn't have funding from a source that wasn't driven by profit motive.

The main point is Science, which has transformed our society more in the last 100 years than any other point in human history, shouldn't be privatized and limited by commercial success. I hope it never is. Not everything needs to be about making money and creating capital.

Currently the libertarian cult is waging a war to try to privatize all science, and we can't let that happen, because it can't be limited by commercial success.

[s_kokkalis]

Neil is but a speck of dust under Elon's fingernails.

[cainflorian]

Kk deGrasse. He is already billionaire and he is not just out there to earn cash.

[MrMusic]

"skepticism is the deadly enemy of progress"

[ungwungboozia]

im starting to believe neil tyson is more upset of the fact that the government is not envolved

[HipHopMovieNews]

I don't doubt Musk can make what ever he dreams of happen. Time will tell.

[brunon.]

ERROR: SpaceX will go to Mars funded by NASA.

[dlwatib]

Neil deGrasse Tyson's comments seem like a slap in the face, despite the fact that he says we need visionaries like Elon. I'm sure this is part of a much longer interview, and maybe it didn't come off as harsh in context as this snippet did. But it sounded like NdT was sneering and saying that Elon wasn't a true businessman because SpaceX wasn't worthy of being backed by a venture capitalist such as himself. BFD NdT! Elon didn't ask for your money for that very reason. SpaceX is a private company because he knows that it doesn't meet the expectations of normal investors.

[sandervdw]

Mr Tyson starts by saying people shoulnd't get hung up on the past and look into the future and then brings up a discovery from the past.0 I really admire him, but have no clue why he's negating even the possibilies with such an onprofound argument

[patrickcasey]

Whatchya hatin for Neil? lol... Almost sounds like your Jealous or something haha... Elon is revolutionary, he'll do it cuz its whats in his heart, its his soul purpose man! plus he's a genius. He doesn't care about money like that... haven't you been paying attention? lol Honestly I don't see Elon failing. Go Elon Go !!!

[wreagfe]

It's always funny how some, not all, of these very smart scientists claim to know how business works even though they are sitting there shielded and protected in the public sector.

[toureiro]

That's why they're not a publicly traded company... I get his concerns on this (the physics of actually living on mars are a bigger issue), but I've heard the counter point to each one of them and I wonder if Tyson knows them or cares.

[radoomiron]

I almost fully agree with Tyson. The only thing he misses is that Musk is sort of a bad business man. He does not focus on ROI. His strategy is very long term. In the away that Arab billionaires waste their fortunes on football clubs, Musk will probably spend everything he has to see his vision of a Mars colony come true. Additionally, SpaceX, which is not publicly listed, has other generous sources of revenue which they will probably redirect towards this endeavour.