This is a really good analogy.

I don’t know the exact background of most astronauts, but Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin both had specialized degrees related to aerospace engineering and were incredibly gifted fighter pilots. Additionally, Buzz Aldrin got a doctorate from MIT, and Neil Armstrong was accepted to to there for his bachelor’s, but decided to go to Purdue instead.

They didn’t just choose brutes who may have been able to survive, and they didn’t just choose nerds who could kind of understand what was going on. They found freaks of nature that could do it all and were ready to potentially die miserably with little recourse.