Sometimes I imagine how a trip to Mars would play out for me...

I save up my money from moonlighting as an Uber Flying Car pilot and plunk down a chilly half million bucks on my SpaceX ticket to Mars. With Star Trek dreams in my head, I board the shiny Starship Mark X and spend months strolling through the stars.

We touch down in the wide dusty field of Arcadia Plains, joining a dozen other Starships parked with noses toward the heavens like they can't wait to get back to Earth. Our SpaceX minder herds us through the access tunnel into the dome where rows of garden beds with low plants greet us, a subtle reminder of all we have left behind.

"Welcome to Mars!" a cheery man in a SpaceX polo shirt calls out, his voice reaching up to the curved, transparent panels of a dome that shows only blackness above.

I think about my house in Albuquerque where I left the chilli plants growing rampant. My cat is now living with my brother. I have been eating SpaceX-issued hot sauce for months.