CBS/Paramount

Could SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk become a real-life Zefram Cochrane, the fictional inventor of warp drive on Star Trek? Astrophysicist and science personality Neil deGrasse Tyson seems to think so.

Dear @ElonMusk,



When are you going to stop dallying with Mars Rockets & Hyperloops & Electric Trucks & Brain-Computer interfaces, and turn your ample resources to developing a Warp Drive?



Sincerely,

Space Geeks of the World — Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 6, 2019

Tyson tweeted Musk a brief letter asking when the entrepreneur was going to quit messing around with Mars rockets, Hyperloops, Cybertrucks and brain-computer interfaces and instead focus his resources on developing a warp drive like we see powering the spaceships across galaxies in Star Trek. He signed it "Sincerely, Space Geeks of the World."

Musk isn't about to turn SpaceX and Tesla into side projects, so he tweeted back to Tyson with a compelling argument for sticking with his main gigs: "If we create a city on Mars, Earth-Mars travel will be a powerful forcing function for inventing something like warp drive."

If we create a city on Mars, Earth-Mars travel will be a powerful forcing function for inventing something like warp drive — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 7, 2019

Tyson's request was all in good fun. The TV star is a known Star Trek fan. Musk, however, once revealed his favorite movie is the original Star Wars film.

This little Twitter back-and-forth isn't likely to change Musk's trajectory or get us any closer to a real warp drive. We'll just have to be content with visions of SpaceX Starships on Mars.