Selection Criteria

We've all read reports on how selective the astronaut corps is in
selecting their candidates, and how any health, behavior, or conduct
problems will have an astronaut removed from launch status.

So, what will the selection criteria be for the hundreds to
thousands of new astronauts that'll be needed for the construction
on a new habitat, staffing mining facilities, operating orbital
transfer vehicles, building SPS, etc?

I'm very interested in how the whole civilization in space concept
will evolve. How will decision's made in the early stages mold the
society that follows. The reason I'm asking about the selection
criteria is because I can foresee applications flooding in,
especially if this becomes an international effort, and only the
healthiest, most capable, and most intelligent individuals will be
selected. As our adventrure continues, will these trends become self-
reinforcing, and only the most capable and healthiest will be
selected or will amercian-style affirmative action policies be
applied? And because of their under-representation, or non-
representation, will disabled people, people with a propensity to
heart disease, diabetes, MS, parkinson's, fill in your favorite
disease, be selected?

Will the astronaut selection committee be able to maintain its high
standards as more and more astronauts are needed, and eventually
when this selection committee morphs into an immigration department
for the new habitat and needs to populate a whole new country, what
will happen to the standards?

For those of you who saw the movie "Gattica" you might take that
situation and apply it to our common vision.

Do we replicate earth societies and give everyone a chance to go to
live in the habitat, especially when there'll be a need for
thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of citizens in the
new worlds. But at the same time I can see a tremendous demand for
this new type of immigration and the new world being able to be very
selective in who moves in.

I came across an interesting fact a few weeks ago: about 80% of
society's medical expenses are caused by less than 10% of the
citizenry. Chronic abusers of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, those with
heriditary diseases, and the preemie babies and old folks kept on
life-support for extended periods of time (although they didn't
define the length of time referred to by "extended")