ASTR 3450

First of all, this is not an easy A class. There is no curve in the class, and the way the assignments are graded are kind of annoying, namely peerceptiv. Gradescope also doesn't give you any type of partial credit, and it used for a lot of the homework and lecture exercises. I managed to scrape an A-, but if you are invested into this class, it shouldn't be too hard to get an A.
The class felt more like a bit like a history class a lot of the time. It was interesting at points, and if the spaceflight and its history is your thing than definitely take this class. Murphy is passionate about this field and it clearly comes across in his lectures, but they didn't really connect with me, as I wasn't that heavily invested in the subject. Good class, but certainly not a super easy elective.

Murphy is a fantastic professor who couldn't be more personally invested in the subject matter. If you want to learn about astronomy, take his courses. If you're looking for an easy class and you aren't actually very interested in astronomy or spaceflight, you will almost certainly hate this course and any of his other courses. In this particular offering of the course, the pandemic hit and it transitioned to online. I thought Murphy handled the transition well and the instruction didn't suffer in the slightest. If anything, the instruction got a little better because he didn't need to answer student questions (he posted recorded lectures), allowing him to remain focused on the topic for the entire duration. As far as the content of this class goes, I found it interesting, although not as focused on Martian activities as I thought it would be. Since I enjoy the broader topic of spaceflight, though, I didn't mind. However I know this bothered some people who were only interested in the material related to Mars, so bear that in mind when enrolling.

(Took this course during covid online classes) -
class set up: composed of 2 quizzes, a final, and a group project. Also weekly homework that was usually a writing assignment and peer reviews.
Content is super interesting if you’re into space, but lectures (at least recorded lectures), tended to be really long - sometimes over 1.5 hrs. Wouldn’t call this class an easy A if that’s what you’re looking for, but it is certainly very interesting to learn about! Not impossible to get an A, but I def had to put in some time to studying. Professor Murphy is really passionate about the content and loves helping students / answering questions.
Warning: the first half of this class has math and some basic physics, so if that’s not your thing, you might not want to take this class.

This class wasn't really what I was expecting. It's sort of false advertising to call it "Missions to Mars" when we didn't talk about missions to Mars until the last three-ish weeks. The first two-thirds of the class is more about the history of spaceflight and mechanics of spaceflight, which is interesting, but not really what I signed up for. There is a decent amount of math in this class with things like orbital mechanics and Kepler's laws, but its not too bad and we got formula sheets for the exams. I didn't find the exams to be all that difficult, but there was a lot of math and free response questions which were a shock to my multiple choice programmed mind. There were readings and some exam questions were based on readings, but you can get by without them (I did). The weekly homework is either a series of short answer questions on gradescope or a longer assignment on peerceptive that could be around a page long writing assignment. Peerceptive, by the way, was a nightmare. Did not like, 0/10. It was impossible to figure out why you were getting points off for things you submitted. Everything is peer graded and then you have to rank the peer reviews you got based on how helpful they are and you get points off if you give everyone a good score even if they were actually all good submissions. So yeah, a nightmare. But as long as you submit everything on time and do the work well your grades will be fine either way. There was also a final group project through peerceptive but it wasn't that bad and my group did it in a few days. Not a bad class, just frustrating and not what I was hoping for. It wasn't actually difficult and I got an A, but it sometimes felt like more trouble than it was worth. Good luck :) #tCFspring2021

If you're thinking about taking this class for an easy A, like I did, or because it seems easy: do NOT. The amount of work that we all put into this class is ridiculous. A couple of weeks throughout the semester he assigned us over 5 hours worth of lecture to watch in addition to lecture exercises and homework. There is also no partial credit whatsoever on exams so if you mess up even the slightest on a math problem, you're getting a 0/10 for the question. Peerceptive peer review grades were simply awful in the way that the system works. So many students have complained about it but he does not change it. He also doesn't even discuss a mission to Mars until the last 2-3 weeks of the semester, so if you're genuinely curious about Mars this class is not worth it. I've seen people say that he is engaging but I think it was the opposite, he would just read off of slides. The class is based on lecture exercises that go alongside the lectures, 2 quizzes (midterms), homework assignments, a final project, and a cumulative final exam.

Professor Murphy is definitely my fav professor at UVa. He is very passionate about astronomy!

Mission to Mars is a new course that he designed based on his specialty. Since I took his ASTR 1210 and loved it, so I took ASTR 3450 the first semester it was offered.

His lectures are very engaging. You only need to read a few fictions and complete some easy exams. If you have taken ASTR 1210, you will nail the math and science part of this class since the materials are related. It's also heavy on spaceflight history.

I personally love it and highly recommend it!

Murphy is one of the most engaging professors at UVA. He focuses mainly on spaceflight in general as opposed to Mars. The class was much more interesting when it was in person...the transition to online was a lot less interesting because he no longer began classes with "what is happening today in space." Overall, HW was easy and the tests were exactly like the HW problems.

I took this class the first semester that it was offered. It was focused a lot on space travel in general and got more into the actual missions to Mars towards the end of the semester. Murphy gave a lot of cool insights about astronauts and his past hopes to become one himself. His love for space travel made this class so engaging. Definitely recommend!

I took this class the first semester it was offered. Murphy is a pretty good lecturer and his lectures were pretty engaging. The homeworks were very simple and easy, same for the tests. Unfortunately, however, this course didn't have much Mars-related content and was more just about space travel in general. Mars was only really looked at in detail in the last couple of weeks.