The successes seem to require the leadership having both incredible competency AND ironclad personal belief that the problem should be solved at almost any cost.
These mega-problems are hard. And, even down a road to eventual success, there are likely to be a lot of "we have to lay off the entire team for 6 months because we have no funding" or "everything about this current situation makes exiting and cutting our losses the smarter move" moments.
I can't imagine that gets any easier when you're talking about physical artifacts that require a much higher minimum feasible investment to even try.
These mega-problems are hard. And, even down a road to eventual success, there are likely to be a lot of "we have to lay off the entire team for 6 months because we have no funding" or "everything about this current situation makes exiting and cutting our losses the smarter move" moments.
I can't imagine that gets any easier when you're talking about physical artifacts that require a much higher minimum feasible investment to even try.