More than half a billion miles from earth this week, a small (570 Ibs.), unmanned spacecraft is completing the first lap of an incredible journey. As it hurtles past Jupiter at a speed of 107,000 m.p.h., some 50 times faster than a rifle bullet, Pioneer 11 is slated to use its cameras and instruments to reconnoiter the solar system's largest planet. That will be only part of its task. As it passes 26,000 miles above Jupiter's turbulent cloudtops, the spacecraft will be pulled by the planet's gravitational field into a corkscrew-shaped turn and...
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