Becoming an astronaut is notoriously difficult, with something on the order of 0.01% of all applicants getting picked for the job. However there are two possible explanations for why this is the case:
- Because the job of an astronaut is extremely difficult and only 0.01% of all humans could do well doing it
- Being an astronaut isn't that difficult, but space agencies get tens of thousands of applicants so any selection process will inevitably weed out 99.99% of all applicants.
Did NASA or other space agencies ever publish estimates of what % of humans could realistically do an astronauts job if given the opportunity? I.e. if NASA was forced to pick the 5000th best candidate instead of the 1st best candidate, would they significantly lower the chance of a successful mission? What about the 50,000th best candidate?