Cosmic Run

From BoardGameGeek:

The year is 2123 and the planet earth is becoming uninhabitable. New powers of interstellar travel make it possible for earthlings to find a new home. Competing teams of human explorers use space stations spread throughout the universe as bases for discovering new worlds and befriending aliens to help them in their quest. Explorer teams are not only racing each other, but meteors are striking planets and threatening these new worlds as well. Will your team be able to reach a planet in time to use its resources and protect it from future meteor strikes? Cosmic Run is a quick, push-your-luck, space race for 1-4 players. On a turn, a player rolls dice and must commit at least 1 of them to one of the various exploration tracks or to an alien card. Some of the tracks require multiple identical dice, with the most valuable tracks costing many identical dice. However, once a player commits a die, it cannot be moved. So players have to decide between a conservative approach (making sure and steady progress along less valuable tracks) or an aggressive approach (pushing one's luck to try to move up the highly valued tracks). Players may opt to use their dice to befriend aliens, rather than explore, because the aliens provide special powers that can eventually help them move along their exploration tracks even faster. The game may be played competitively or cooperatively.