Aside from standard cataclysms like comets and supervolcanoes wiping out most life, the Sun is a timer as well. There’s definitely less than a billion years until the Sun boils away the oceans as it heats up. Obviously outside of any timescale any living thing could comprehend, but would you like to gamble on evolution producing another intelligent, spacefaring species if it has to start over in irreversibly deteriorating conditions, assuming we don’t make it? It’s now or never - we must expand beyond Earth because each moment we delay, the chance of extinction only increases.

You’ve got to chill the hell out. Besides, we’re talking about Mars. They’ve already sent commercial parts. The problem is that they couldn’t afford to use more durable structural pieces. Yes, like Curiosity as you said. The wheels were shredded because they were extremely thin. If they had the mass budget for solid steel wheels, more powerful motors, and a larger power source to compensate, that’s that problem dealt with. Engineers are more clever than you seem to think.

I can’t wait for operational Starship to put an end to planetary science mass insanity. Even if manned missions are still far away, they can finally just send a rugged machine with off the shelf parts.