Jerry O'Donnell is a leader of a team of scientists who may approach you in a bar with a mission that can be quite dangerous in a weak ship. This approach may happen at any point in your game, including your very first planetfall. This mission is available in any bar.
The mission is to take Jerry, his team, and their payload (a deep space probe) to the eastern edge of the galaxy: Kont, in the Kontik system. Your pilot knows that few ever return from there. Accepting the mission puts the scientists and their probe in your cargo bay, which all take up a total of 5 tons of free space.
What makes this mission dangerous is the long flight through Auroran space, and the path that takes you through systems that tend to have Houseless ships raiding quite frequently. Kontik itself is eerie, and a little spooky, but is otherwise safe, usually.
The most direct path for Federation ships is to start from Tischel, go south to SPC-050, south to Wittor, southeast to Hope, southwest to Pimen, southeast to Freya, southeast to Dani Kilik, south to Terval, northeast to Tural, northeast to Zipa, southeast to Neilha, south to Eguit, east to Smada, and finally east to Kontik.
Upon landing, the mission is half over, as you must now return to Sol with Jerry and his team for the 50,000-credit reward.