Like most other reviews mention, this class is mostly about spaceflights and the mechanics of that, only really discussing Mars in the last third of the semester. However I still think course is worthwhile, especially if your an Astronomy minor. The course material is really interesting, plus I took this course during the Artemis II mission which really added another layer to it all since we were seeing a bunch of what we discussed in class in action. Prof Murphy is such a nice guy and you can tell he's really passionate about the content. There are also a bunch of weekly Lecture Exercises and Homework assignments, two midterms, a final exam, and a group digital final project. The final project and most of the Homework assignments are completed on Peerceptive, where you grade your classmates' submissions, and then grade their reviews and give the reviewers feedback which all combine to your final grade on the Homework. Peerceptive always felt super hit or miss since you're penalized for giving everyone a good grade and if just one of the peer reviews marks off one point in one category the curve essentially docks you a most of a letter grade. This was my only real gripe with the course structure and other than that if you pay attention and do the reading you should be fine.

This course was honestly one of my favorite ever at UVA. Ed Murphy is one of the greats. He is so passionate about what he teaches, and every single class was so very interesting. I love space and I love astronomy and I loved the subject of this class, so take this with a grain of salt, but this class was so interesting and so fun! If you put enough effort in, you will definitely get an A.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Ed Murphy is a great guy and is super passionate about a mission to Mars. However, it is definitely not an easy A (or even an easy A-, for that matter). I went to every lecture and took good notes on most of them. However, I did not have time to read the books and found that most of the material was covered in class anyway. On the first exam, I got a 93, but the second exam was graded very harshly (and I scored much lower than I was willing to admit). I put in so many hours to study for this class, but I was never studying the right specifics and would always get points off on exams. The content is very interesting, but the grading is terrible. I also think that it is important to know that Peerceptiv (a way to submit assignments) is fully based off of your ability to grade your peers' submissions. If you are not "accurate" in your analysis of others, you get points off of your assignments. While this didn't make too big of an impact on my grade, getting 100s on my submissions would've definitely given me some room with the final exam. There is a final project as well, and you can choose your partner(s)- it was actually pretty fun, but again, it is graded in Peerceptiv so you get points off for nothing. Lastly, the final was awful. I studied for over 20 hours and barely got by. Content not covered in class was on the exam, and the questions felt incredibly unfair and detailed for what was supposed to be a "broad overview" of the class.

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.