The water in the Bay of Caernarfon shines a brilliant blue outside the cottage we are in, in remotest Wales. We have been having sunshine since we arrived five days ago. And the man-made satellite Cassini is circling Saturn.

As you can see, my cup run neth over. And not just has the Cassini completed its two-billion mile, seven-year journey successfully, but the first privately-owned, designed and built space craft, Space Ship One has completed its first manned sub-orbital flight, taking it to a hundred kilometres above Earth's surface.

As an avid follower of extraterrestrial exploration, I was deeply disappointed by the failure of the Beagle to land safely on Mars a couple of months ago, but was then cheered up when NASA's Rover landed on the planet's surface and sent back a series of photographs and reams of scientific data.

I am now waiting for Cassini to release the Huygens lander on the surface of the Titan, the only moon in our planetary system to possess an atmosphere. The Huygens will send back a series of pictures and a stream of data about this unique satellite that has been exciting speculation since mankind first invented the telescope and focused on Saturn and its mysterious rings.

I know many people are of the view that as long as we have so many unresolved social and economic problems in this world, we have no business spending billions on space exploration.

But as any student of history will tell you, wealth and poverty have always been part of the human condition: if the Pharaohs had waited until income disparities had been eliminated, we would never have had the pyramids to admire today. The same is true of all the great civilizations. Cruelty, exploitation and hubris have resulted in wonderful architecture and great works of art.

This is not to suggest that the latter justifies the former. But if NASA did not receive the billions it gets from the American exchequer, rest assured this money would not have gone towards health care, education or better roads. Chances are that it would have either been gobbled up by the Pentagon, or handed over to rich businessmen as tax breaks.

This is, unfortunately, the way of the world. And until our rulers become far better people than they are, I for one will continue hoping for a swifter understanding of our planetary system and, indeed, the universe.

As a child, I was sure the end of the last century would see colonies on the moon and on Mars, at the very least. There would be a vast space platform circling Earth which would receive tourists, and would be the launch-pad for distant missions.

Out of these, only the last seems on track for completion during my lifetime. The problem, as I see it, is that mankind has been too distracted by bickering to grasp its true destiny and get on with exploring the solar system, and next, embark on intergalactic flight.

OK, I am aware that Einstein has mathematically proved that faster-than-light is not possible, and that space travel at sub-light speed would take generations. But hey, when has an escapist like me allowed mere Newtonian physics to shackle my imagination?

In my vast reading of science fiction, warp-drives and multi-dimensional space (to name just a couple) get around the difficulties of faster-than-light velocities. And where sci-fi writers go, physicists catch up sooner or later. Take Arthur C.

Clarke, for example: he wrote about satellites being used for communications a few decades before they became fact. Jules Verne was another visionary who foretold many scientific developments long before they were everyday reality.

So I don't for one moment take the Einsteinian speed limit as anything more than a temporary brake on the imagination of physicists and mathematicians. Just think how impossible the Star Trek method of 'beaming up' crew members from planetary surfaces seemed.

The idea that a beam could disintegrate particles of a human body atom by atom, and then reassemble them hundreds of miles away seemed literally outlandish. But recently, scientists have come across a curious phenomenon called 'entanglement', whereby an atom can be moved across a room, and gets 'entangled' with another without physically being displaced.

No rational explanation has been found for such peculiar behaviour, and it is a far cry from calling to be beamed up to the star-ship Enterprise. However, it does represent a modest first step towards teleportation.

Out of all the recent (and unending) scientific developments, the most exciting one for me is the launch of the private SS-1 into suborbital space. What is truly revolutionary is that the design and construction of the rocket cost only $20 million. While this may seem a large figure to most of us, compared to what government rocket launches cost, it is peanuts.

The truth is that if mankind is to expand into space, it will have to shrug off the numbing grip of officialdom. When the great explorers first circumnavigated the globe, they were financed in the expectation of vast profits. Distant empires were founded to secure trade, and give colonists access to spice, gold and silver.

I am not suggesting that we follow this model in our quest to explore the universe. If we do meet extraterrestrial beings, we must not repeat the mistakes our forefathers made when they met people different from them.

But clearly, venture capitalists and risk takers will need to finance our exploration of outer space. All government agencies need to do is allow this to happen, and not erect barriers.

Over the years, many friends have been amused and bemused by my escapist interests. The truth is that I believe curiosity and imagination to be the finest attributes of the human mind, and to stifle them through deadening ideologies and dogmas is a crime against our humanity.

As I grow older, I find most human behaviour to be trite and utterly predictable. Although I do write about people, I find it often bores me as a subject as I would far rather be writing about ideas.

Politics and politicians, although essential, are not usually very illuminating topics. In fact, in their squalor and their appeal to the lowest common denominator, they are deadly dull as a rule.

Listen to a politician drone on, and the reason the world is in such a mess will become instantly clear. So given the state of the world today, is it a wonder I escape to distant worlds? Or watch re-runs of Star Trek? Or read 'Lord of the Ring' five times?