Why do missions get conflated to moonshots?
Multiple, measurable missions stack up to achieve a moonshot
As you know from reading our book Building Moonshots, moonshots are big ideas with potential big impact. Moonshots offer an almost impossible vision with world-changing impact.
So why are we still finding the concept of missions used interchangeably or incorrectly in terms of moonshots? Mixing up moonshots and missions is not like confusing desert and dessert. Experts, if we dare say, should know the difference between moonshots and missions because this distinction confirms their expertise in the matter.
How moonshots and missions relate
In 1961, a moonshot referred specifically to the ambitious goal of landing humans on the moon and returning them safely to Earth. The original moonshot was defined by its uncertainty and ambiguity; humans had never been to the moon (much less returned), so it was a big bet that humanity’s knowledge and technologies were ready to make it happen.
Over time, the term moonshot has come to symbolize human ambition and the pursuit of seemingly unattainable goals. These grand visions provoke teams to think bigger and aim higher, to drive society forward, and to imagine a radically better world.
A mission is a specific task for a group to achieve, such as a covert military operation or a major space project. America’s defining moonshot was built upon a decade of space missions, each proving a specific task – such as a novel engine design or new type of space suit material. Building upon the successes of the Mercury and Gemini missions, the first lunar landing happened on the Apollo 11 mission, which was the fifth crewed mission of NASA’s Apollo program. Beyond the moon, different nations today are pursuing multiple missions seeking to get to Mars.
In short, multiple missions function as stepping stones to a big vision – or moonshot.
One economist’s moonshot and mission jargon
Unfortunately, a major source of confusion – often for our European colleagues in government – was started by Mariana Mazzucato, an economics professor at University College London whose work has influenced the EU’s Green New Deal. She invoked moonshots in a 2019 op-end headline that stated grandly: “To change the world, governments need to launch new moonshots.” However, her piece focused largely on missions as the way to achieve public sector change and didn’t really address how missions relate to moonshots.
Then in 2021, she popularized the notion of “mission-driven innovation” in her book Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism. In this book, she urges policymakers to apply NASA’s mission-driven approach – specifically from the Apollo 11 mission – toward the wicked problems facing societies today. We feel that Mazzucato aims to evoke the bold (and you might even say, American can-do) spirit of the NASA endeavor more than the process itself to counter stodgy European planning.
Her overzealous wording has led to some issues. First, the book title and subtitle are often misconstrued. Mazzucato presents one moonshot, which is to rethink the capitalist system and role of governments as “part policy critique, part manifesto,” as one book reviewer put it. Her vision is an interventionist and even idealized altruistic state. Two key elements — though not new or novel, are sorely needed — are more public-private partnerships and more cross-agency collaboration. The book is not a guide to other moonshots except her own (and whether her vision qualifies as a moonshot is a topic for another day!).
A second issue is that Mazzucato’s language is obscure and circular at times. In this book and further discussed in a EU commissioned report she wrote, she places a mission (such as “100 carbon neutral cities by 2030”) under a grand challenge (such as “climate change”). In her version, missions have ambitious goals, “come in different shapes and sizes,” and sit “between broad challenges and concrete projects”. She sees multiple missions addressing a single grand challenge, and a grand challenge can link to a UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) or Societal Challenge in the EU Horizon 2020 program. In the report, she does not mention grand challenges can serve as moonshots, hers aside. Confusing, right?
A rose by any other name
What Mazzucato is positing aligns with an existing approach of challenge-based innovation (see more in this 2012 study), though we agree adding a moonshot flavor makes it sound cooler. One modification is that she recommends pursuing multiple missions simultaneously to achieve bigger outcomes. In contrast, a government agency like NASA typically stacks missions as a learning ladder toward an ultimate vision.
Mazzucato has since moved on to bashing consultants and other topics. Regardless, the OECD and others have embraced her concept as “mission-oriented innovation” and “mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIP)” – with one analyst attempting to clarify mission terminology (though in attempting this noble act, he mislabels “moonshots as a type of mission” – argh!).
In the end, the distinction between moonshots and missions isn’t just academic – it’s essential. After all, it’s not just about achieving the big vision, it’s about understanding the journey and the words that get you there. So the lesson here is: multiple, measurable missions stack up to achieve a moonshot.
We always love to hear from our readers, so send us an idea or request any time to hello@buildingmoonshots.com.
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