The 2040s will be the years of the conquest of space towards Mars. The moon is in the process of being colonized, and Europe will have finally realized that it has all the skills it needs. Genuine collobaration between countries will have made it possible to create a habitable, reusable rocket. France is the only country to have taken part in all the world's space programs, in collaboration with other agencies, and will become the ship's leader. The people in charge of these projects will not be uneducated, but real scientists working in collaboration with European companies.
These advances will be the stuff of dreams for young people, who will come and take part in this great adventure. Energy production will be nuclear; the Germans will have understood that green coal doesn't exist.
This colonization of our near space will lead to major medical discoveries and a new understanding of our universe. The world will finally be moving in the right direction. All the women in the world will finally be legal, and religion will no longer have a say in the matter.