Given current demographic and economic trends, surely the Pacific Rim nations will dominate the coming time frame. China in particular is likely to become the dominant world power and reclaim a position it once held in dominating global civilation over hundreds, perhaps thousands of years time. My projections indicate that the economic mainspring of the U.S. will be dependent upon a new space age by the year 3000, perhaps as early as 2500. Hard though it may be to believe, Hilton and British Airways commissioned studies recently involving the development of extraterrestrial space resorts. The project would use discarded space shuttle fuel tanks about 154 feet long and 28 feet in diameter as building blocks for this project.
Satellite communications is the current hot button.
Timing is everything. Some of the biggest companies have already gone into bankruptcy, but the demand for cellular satellite and non-wire communications will continue to grow. Extra terrestrial adventures will and must continue. The earth's sun in about five billion years goes super nova and snuffs out all the nearby satellites including earth. By that time we will be long gone, repopulating other reaches of our galaxy, perhaps of the universe itself.