This issue is money and it will always be money. It’s very hard to have a constant funding source to achieve a goal that has a reputation of being 20-30 years off. Private money can only get you so far and after providing funding for outrageously expensive equipment, and the also creating a payroll for a staff of often highly educated individuals who no doubt require a large salary to keep them working on your project compared to some one else’s projects. They often get scratched or sold off to another dreamer hoping of changing the world. And government funded project have less of a chance of success due to limited funding and salaries options compared to private companies. Then political changes in most cases often result in reduced funding or cutting the entire program as a whole depending of the beliefs of the current parties political views or budgetary needs. I have worked for both private and public entities and both have a tight grip on where the money is spent and often it’s is not used correctly. locked up in salary disputes, creating useless positions that take up payroll or even projects that don’t have anything to do with the goal at all.