Diversity in space – what and why?

I have thought a lot about what we mean by the term diversity in the context of corporations and corporate governance. As I explain in my article Defining Diversity in Corporate Governance, although the dictionary meaning of diversity means both different views and different types of people, we seem to fixate on the latter. There may be good reason for this if we are intending to diversify corporations with the goal of making them more equal and fair. Even if this is our only goal, we should broaden our focus to more types of diverse people. At present we mostly seem to think of women and minority races. What about other types of diversity like immigrants, those living with and fighting a serious illness like cancer, etc? I’m thinking of these types of people after reading about the passenger list of the first spaceflight by SpaceX. Marina Koren writes in the Atlantic:

Isaacman is bringing with him three people who, not long ago, were complete strangers to him and one another. Hayley Arceneaux is a physician assistant who works with children with cancer at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She had cancer as a child herself, and has said that she’d never meet NASA’s physical requirements for spacefarers because of a titanium rod in her leg. (Isaacman is raising money for the hospital, and wanted to bring one of its employees.) Sian Proctor is a geoscience professor who was once a finalist in NASA’s astronaut program; she says she felt like Harry Potter finding out he was a wizard when she found out she would be going to space. (She won an online competition that Isaacman had set up.) Chris Sembroski is a data engineer, an Iraq War veteran, and a self-described space nerd. (A friend of his won a raffle that Isaacman had organized and gave Sembroski his spot.) 

I think this list is amazing because it is bring the dream of space flight to so many different types of people. I think this is important at this time when spaceflight is still something special. As Koren writes later in the article:

Someday, there might indeed be a crew of pilot buddies, or maybe even a bachelor party. But on this first flight, the crew is a wholesome, starry-eyed bunch, imbued with a sense of awe at what they’re about to do. In many ways, their mission marks the beginning of a new era in American spaceflight.

So in a sense, the diverse crew “merits” inclusion in this first space flight because they are passionate about the new venture and what it could open up; which really is what this first spaceflight (for SpaceX) is all about. This takes me back to my arguments in the corporate governance space where I think people with different viewpoints “merit” inclusion because board decisions informed by many perspectives are likely to be better considered.