Anyone who wants to innovate must make the impossible possible. This requires ambitions that reach the moon and beyond. During his lecture at Advanced Engineering on Wednesday, May 21, Stijn Ilsen, aerospace engineer at Redwire Space, will explain everything about the essential Moonshot Mindset and how it can make the difference between success and failure.
“In the space industry, you are constantly faced with impossible questions. Boundaries are continuously pushed, technology is improved, and expectations are raised,” says Stijn. That’s why having the right mindset is crucial to achieving your goal. “We aim for the moon and might end up among the stars. But at least we tried.”
This is the Moonshot Mindset: tackling what seems impossible, with courage, risk-taking, and confidence in a successful outcome. “Think about how nuclear fusion once seemed impossible, yet now there is belief that it can be achieved.” As a preview of his lecture, Stijn shares three tips on how to adopt this mindset.
1 – Young, high potentials do the trick
It’s important to critically consider who you expect to come up with radical innovations. “Without generalizing, in my opinion, you don’t ask this of senior professionals. Someone who has been making a product the same way for twenty years cannot suddenly be expected to do it completely differently and fifty times faster or better. That person is too intertwined with existing company processes.”
So, who should you ask instead? “The younger generation, who learned from previous generations at school and through YouTube, Instagram, TikTok… Give them the manpower, resources, carte blanche, and the freedom to fail—this is how the biggest innovations emerge. Moreover, such a mindset is highly attractive and will draw in the best young high potentials.”
2 – Don’t start from where you are now
To think innovatively, you need to detach yourself from your current situation. Instead of focusing on where you are now, look further into the future and work backward step by step to determine how to reach your desired vision.
“Imagine you want to send people to Mars in ten years, and right now, you only have one rocket. Instead of planning based on that single rocket, you should think in reverse from the point of arrival on Mars: the journey takes six months, so you must depart in nine and a half years, the rocket must be a certain size to carry enough supplies, which means you need two years to build it, and so on.”
This way of thinking not only requires creativity and a strong connection to the future but also has clear advantages. “This approach often gives you a much better sense of whether a project is feasible within a given timeframe. It also prevents you from getting stuck in the beginning with small, low-risk steps that don’t actually move you forward.”
3 – Timing is Crucial
What turns a great idea into a successful project, product, business, or innovation often comes down to timing. “This was discussed in a TED Talk by Bill Gross. When an idea fails, people often blame a lack of funding or talent, or they doubt the idea itself. But in most cases, the real issue is simply timing.”
“When you start working on a Moonshot idea, it’s important to consider what innovations will emerge in the coming years. Will everyone have access to the technology we currently have? Will our idea be adopted and executed faster by a competitor? Will our idea still be innovative by then?”
“Perhaps even more important is assessing the market: will the market be ready for our developed idea in X number of years? If the answer to that question is ‘no,’ then the idea is already doomed to fail,” Stijn concludes.
These three tips are just the tip of the iceberg that Stijn Ilsen will uncover during his lecture at Advanced Engineering. A must-attend presentation for innovators in product development and beyond. Be sure to join us on Wednesday, May 21, and Thursday, May 22, at Flanders Expo, Ghent, and register today. See you there! 🚀
