I'm a little bit behind with S283 Planetary Science but I'm finding it relatively easy to catch up, since none of the topics in this part of the course appear to have any prerequisite chapters as such. I also spent more time than I should have done on TMA03, which I didn't find particularly easy to get my head around. I'm also finding this Astrobiology section a little more interesting than the Solar System section, which was mostly geology.
Only a four days after the postponed Mars and Icy Moons tutorial, I had another one on Chapters 5 and 6 which covered Titan and Exoplanets. These are not topics that have that much in common, which the tutor fully admitted before they got going in earnest. Titan was skipped over really and the tutor turned the treatment of it as an excuse to do a bit of maths. They then went on to exoplanets, which is fairness does lend itself to a mathematical treatment, and then to round off the hour, did a bit of general astronomy based maths. Some of it was useful but I can't help thinking it was just a way of avoiding the course material and turning it into something of a personal interest. This tutor did their first and only other tutorial on mathematical topics as well, so a trend is immerging here.
As well as the normal tutorials I have on MST124, I had an hour long Maxima session which helped explain some of things this quirky piece of software can actually do, particularly with respect to the requirements of TMA02. It was really quite useful, and there's another one in a few weeks time that I'm looking forward to.
I also had the second of two 'Planets and Moons' Chats with Dave Rothery and his guest, an OU Astrobiologist. Both were very informative and were both good speakers. While not critical for S283, it complemented the module very well. It partially clashed with a Maths tutorial on functions which I managed to catch the first part of. That was excellent as well and I will happily catch up with the remaining part at some point in the near future.