Scheduled to begin this week, the journey will be the most spectacular ever undertaken from earth: an odyssey of two years and half a billion milesincluding a hazardous stretch through the asteroid beltto fly to within 87,000 miles of the planet Jupiter. If all goes well, the unmanned shipPioneer 10will radio back the first closeup pictures of the giant planet, probe its intense magnetic fields and radiation belts and perhaps peek at one of the twelve Jovian moons. Then with the planet's powerful gravity acting as a slingshot, Pioneer will be hurled beyond...
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