I think you need both, but an alternative albeit for-profit way of going big without government requirements attached is the patronage model, which funded Leona

I think you need both, but an alternative albeit for-profit way of going big without government requirements attached is the patronage model, which funded Leonardo Di Vinci for example. Several individuals are pumping a lot of money into moonshot projects, and of course Google X type incubators exists. But I'm excited for projects like Elon Musk sending those artists to the moon, because those are the type of unpredictable upsides that could never achieve government funding.