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Mission Statement Planetary Science (PS) is a fast growing discipline. Several planetary missions are on going (e.g., Cassini, Mars Express, Venus Express, New Horizon, Messenger), and others will be launched in next few years. Coming years will also witness a tremendous growth in the Asia-Oceania region with the upcoming missions to the Moon, viz., Chandrayaan-1, Chang’e, and Selene, which follow closely on heals of Hayabusa mission to Asteroid. Moreover, the ground-based and satellite-based facilities and observations of planetary system are continuously on rise, and so is the theoretical studies and modeling efforts. In view of these developments the Planetary Science section of AOGS has a greater responsibility to play in years to come. Also, there is a need for making the PS sessions more coherent and broader to cater to the requirements of larger PS community. For example, bringing in more interdisciplinary nature of research areas into sessions organized by the PS, like session on planetary geology, planetary oceanography, astrobiology, to name a few. This will expand the base of AOGS by attracting scientists from different fields and would benefit AOGS attendees in general and the PS community in particular. Earlier and current President of the PS section has done a great job of making PS sessions as one of the most successful one in terms of the breadth and scope, as well as in attracting global scientific community to the AOGS meetings. Credit for this success also goes to conveners of the PS sessions. During the last 3 years PS section has, on an average, contributed about 30% of the total number of abstracts presented at the AOGS annual meetings. I wish to maintain this percentage and strive to make PS sessions more attractive and beneficial to the PS community. I am sure that the PS section of AOGS will see a larger growth in next couple of years and I will do my best to fulfill the requirements and to take it to newer heights!
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