PROBABLE Prediction 2020.1 ![[PENDING]](../watch.gif)
Submitted 27th March 1995 by Greg Baker
[email protected]
Prediction:
There will be at least one business man or woman commuting moon-earth every day as part of an ordinary working week.
Objective measurement:
Some person will be giving their home address as somewhere on the moon, and their work address on earth. (Going home to the moon on weekends, staying somewhere on earth during the week.) Probably they will get an interview on some radio/tv/newspaper/newsgroup as it will seem mildly amazing when it happens.
When:
Before 2020.
Why:
Cheap nanotechnology will be available by 2015. In the same way that we print out pieces of paper using a laser printer now, we will be printing out complex objects in 2015. When there are flaws, we will "throw them in the bin" in the same way we do with a letter with a single typo. The difference is, these will be objects which would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1995 currency. By then, the designs on Saturn V rockets and much of the equipment from the USSR launches will be in the public domain, or will be cheaply available. It is likely that you will know somebody who has printed off a copy of some rocket, and has gone into space with it (See note 1, in further comments). By 2020, some futuristic Free Software Foundation may be supplying free plans for the most up-to-date rocketry on the planet - rockets that can do the earth-moon trip in under twelve hours (Note 2). Some bright spark will realise some tax quirk that can be utilised, and decide that sleeping Friday and Sunday nights in acceleration is worth it.
Further comments:
Note 1. And if the privatisation of space agreement is held, and there are space patrols to make sure that people are using space for private means or profit, what of it? Won't that encourage more people to try it because of the challenge of avoiding "the cops"? Note 2. Maintain a constant acceleration of around 0.03 G, based on a quick napkin sketch. Don't forget that rocket fuel will be staggeringly cheap, too.
If you are reading this in 2020, you'll probably be laughing at the quaint timid predictions. No doubt the trip will be far less than 12 hours, but it is barely possible for we C.20's to imagine it practically!