The difference today is that the astronaut with the broken neck would be front page news for every minute of the hours/days/weeks it took to get them home, and far longer if they die. Bad press is bad for funding, especially in a democratic country.

> the astronaut with the broken neck would be front page news for every minute of the hours/days/weeks

Only while the thing is rare.

A brave explorer dying the martyr death to advance humanity. Give him a hero's funeral and give generous pensions to his relatives. Suddenly it sounds like a sales pitch. Well, to some.

> It won't be people like us going.

Is it gonna be disposable lower-class people?

In age of doscovery shipowners and governments assumed a 50% death rate from scurvy for their sailors on a major voyage.

TThe past is fireign land, executions were a public holiday and children came to watch. We used to gove cocaine to children to stop them crying.

> Is it gonna be disposable lower-class people?

This meme comes from people who've watched too many bad sci-fi shows and don't have a good grasp of history. The people going to space will be the intersection of those who can afford it and those who want and are capable of going. The first people who traveled the oceans were not the lower class. They were the upper class who could afford to fund or pay for the journey by pooling money or independently pay for it.

The poor you refer to didn't come until much later in the age of discovery.

Who worked on those ships? Honest question. I suspect it was lower class people who didn't have many life options...?