Description from the designer:
The goal of Galactic Payload is to be the first to colonize your home planet.
The players accomplish this by trading the resources their home planet produces with trading outposts spread out through six separate sectors across the galaxy. The trade conditions dynamically change every turn for every sector. Players may also spend resources to upgrade their ship and to build mining outposts that passively collect more resources every turn.
Every ship produces 'Powercubes' on every turn. These 'Powercubes' are then spent to move across the galaxy and then allocated to the players ship systems such as Shields, Weapons or Thrusters. These are used to protect the player from hazards such as Pirates and other players.
First player to return six units of each resource that their home planet does not produce wins the game.