And as a percentage of the population, I'd be willing to wager they're far smaller than the number of humans who've looked up at the sky and dreamt of what the Earth looks like from the cosmos.
I think we’re deviating a bit here. My point was that while most people might dream that, by and large going up there in space enabled by complex technology is in a few ways similar to asserting wealth via pineapples or large yachts or exotic cars. Yay, I got money, I can do it, look!
I think the point is that this is easily separable from money. If tomorrow, going to space became a pedestrian affair, available to all, a sizable chunk of this interested would still want to do it. The impulse isn't as status-driven as you describe it: wanting to see the Earth from space doesnt derive most of its value from being the only one that gets to do it. Compare it to seeing the Grand Canyon. Nobody goes there because they think it's a unique privilege. They pack in amongst the Midwestern tourists because the Grand Canyon is amazing.
Would they really? I bet most people wouldn't want to go into space. A lot of people can now bungee-jump, fly their own planes, fly in a balloon, paraglide, deep dive, yet how many do any of these things.
I've done a handful of these things, and they seem categorically different from being in space: even low Earth orbit _feels_ noticeably different from skydiving etc (I'm also making the assumption that it's safer than eg paragliding). I suppose we're just starting from different assumptions about what captures the imagination of the average person. At the very least, I'd be surprised if the average current spaceflight customer was more driven by status than by excitement about space per se.
> At the very least, I'd be surprised if the average current spaceflight customer was more driven by status than by excitement about space per se.
Absolutely agree with this. There are far better ways of flexing status on Earth than paying for a space trip.
If you asked any given person on the street whether they'd like to see the Earth from space, I'd be willing to wager serious money they'd be more likely to say yes than no, given that it were easily accessible and the money would be taken care of. Those activities you listed have quite a bit of money and time needed to do. But the desires are all absolutely there.