The Earth is about to be destroyed, but humanity has managed to build enough spaceships to transport part of the population to Mars. Only those lucky few who have a ticket will get aboard.
In Ticket to Mars, each player forms a part of a mega-corporation with different interests, and the player who manages to fulfill more aims will win their own ticket off Earth. During the game, you have to play order cards to rise, to go down, or to move people between spaceships. Each time you want to return your order cards to hand. the countdown advances and ships takes off when the countdown reaches zero. You win victory points depending on how well you've met your secret goals.