2040 - Fuel Crisis Starved for petroleum, the North American continent is thrown into a period of economic disruption and fuel rationing. Air travel is limited to critical missions, and the entire transportation business suffers a severe economic depression. Research intensifies on coal reprocessing and Hydrogen-based engines. Many large-scale solar farms are constructed. Contact is lost with old Voyager probes within a half minute of each other.
Scientists have no explanation to offer.
The Techno-socialists, under a revisionist mandate, began a period of strict government regulation of the economy. Immigration laws are finally loosened, and a flood of intellectuals cross the pacific, fleeing the repressive Sino-Japanese hegemony. By the year 2059, a mining center had been established near the Sinus Iridium region of the moon, and orbital industrial plants were constructed from the lunar ore shipments. Unfortunately, the new industrial base was expensive to maintain and the output had only a modest impact on the economy. Quickly the other major powers began their own expansionist space programs.