Is it fitness and transferable skills? Seems like it would be most advantageous to be some sort of scientist. With the likes of SpaceX making it all more automated, will the demographic of astronauts change?
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Go watch the movie “The Right Stuff” from the 80s where they document the decision-making process behind choosing the first set of American (human) astronauts. You’re right that things are changing, but at the time it was very important that people with the right mentality and experience in a similar stress environment (both physical and mental) be in place.
According to a pilot friend off mine, during the shuttle era, being an astronaut required some number of thousands of hours experience on jet equipment.
That pretty much eliminated all but military pilots; and commercial airline pilots who’d be taking a huge pay cut.
Fighter pilots check a lot of boxes in what NASA wants to see in an astronaut. Its also worth noting that most of these guys are not “just” fighter pilots. They also usually have STEM degrees too.
The “demographic” of astronauts will change as the volume of people to space increases and the missions changes. Less flight positions and more technical specialists or tourists. Still, I assume there will be a lot of former fighter pilots stepping foot on Mars for the first time.
Fighter jet goes VROOOOOOM. Space plane basically also goes VROOOOOOM. Fighter jet pilot’s job is to control VROOOOOOMs. Fighter jet pilot can make space plane go VROOOOOOM.
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