Mary Bowerman

USA TODAY Network

In a classic case of put your money where your mouth is, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson says he has no plans to ride SpaceX to Mars or anywhere else until founder Elon Musk’s mom makes the round trip.

During a Reddit “Ask Me Anything (AMA)” Sunday, a user asked Tyson if he would consider taking SpaceX to Mars. His cheeky answer? On one condition.

“I really like Earth, so any space trip I take, I'm double checking that there's sufficient funds for me to return,” Tyson responded. “Also, I'm not taking that trip until Elon Musk send his Mother and brings her back alive. Then I'm good for it.”

Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla, recently said the company is planning a private space mission using a SpaceX rocket to transport two paying passengers around the moon by late next year. And Mars has been on Musk’s radar for some time. SpaceX is supplying the International Space Station using reusable Dragon capsules and has pioneered rocket boosters that return to Earth and land upright so they can be reused.

The company is developing plans for a reusable rocket, which it says will be able to send 100 to 200 people at a time to Mars. Musk aims to launch the first human flight within the decade at the cost of a mere $100,000 to $200,000 per person. He envisions sending 10,000 such missions over the next century.

Tyson added that SpaceX's endeavors to reuse rockets are key to future success.

"Any demonstration of rocket reusability is a good thing," Tyson said. "When we fly on a Boeing 747 across great distances, we don't throw it away and roll out a new one. Reusability is arguably the most fundamental feature of affordable expensive things."

Another Reddit user asked whether Tyson believes people will make contact with intelligent life in the next 50 years.

"No. I think they (we) might all be too far away from one another in space and possibly time," he said. "By complex, I'm presuming you mean life other than single-celled organisms. Life with legs, arms, thoughts, etc. It's all about our capacity to travel interstellar distances. And that's surely not happening in the next 50 years. Not the rate things are going today."

And there you have it.

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Contributing: Oren Dorell, USA TODAY NETWORK.