History tells us that man loves to explore so sending out probes to space alone is not in mans best interest, eventually we will want to get our feet wet even at the expense of casualties along the way.. according to our historical nature.
I can't really say how soon is too soon, heck we went to the moon in a race and it actually worked, I believe tho that we want to be more careful next time, btw didn't NASA declare the universe/outer space to be property of the USA? lol..
On another note: I don't believe in astrology charts one bit and I definitely don't believe in the New Age movement as some spiritual evolution taking place. I do find a subtle relevance in the constellation Aquarius in relation to our view of the heavenly sky due to Earths slow wobble in the heavens (New Agers would say this is some major event as we are moving into this age from the age of the constellation pisces) this constellation of Aquarius is dubbed the "water bearer" and is considered to be an air sign, I never understood why a supposed "air" sign was used to represent a "water bearer", I figure it's all just ridiculous astrology nonsense but I like to subject any possible logic into whatever I can if possible at all.
Oddly enough if I squint my mental eye just right I can find some correlation of "air" with "water bearing" in our upcoming solar precession because ironically during this so called "shift" between these two "ages" we are becoming rapidly more air born and venturing to more elevated altitudes via breakthrough technological advances, hence "bearing water" (beholding water from air/sky) and it has nothing to do with universal friendship or an age of spiritual "enlightenment", just coincidence I suppose..
Anyway I do believe we are in the end times just as the Bible has prophesied and their are still signs to come, not all of Revelation will be understood until the signs actually appear so no matter how weird we view future outer spacial travels such as manned missions to mars, it may very well have a part in the end times wrap up.. also according to scripture "World/Earth" can refer to any "land" just as we discovered the Americas separated by waters so may we find land separated by space. Just sayin.
We will be on a new world in physical bodies after the judgment, this physical planet will have no need for a sun, interesting... Heaven is also called 'the heavens' in the bible, I believe Gods plan for us is just so amazingly impossible to comprehend that we can't even imagine it's beauty.