Blog Ribs NASA Scientist

Predictions of the future can turn into embarrassing documents. Paleo-Future, a blog dedicated solely to unearthing past prognostications about, as its motto states, “the future that never was," makes a living off such documents.

This week, it puts NASA luminary Jesco Freiherr von Puttkamer (who has worked on everything from Apollo 11 to President Bush's Moon/Mars Exploration Vision) on the hot seat. A Nov.2, 1979, Christian Science Monitor article summarized his vision of the future:

By the late '80s or early '90s, a huge solar power satellite may be constructed to beam microwave energy to Earth. And after that, a natural step as Mr. Von Puttkamer sees it, will be space colonies built with nonterrestial material and using solar energy.