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AOGS Election of Office Bearers - 2014 to 2016
The community of planetary science has steadily grown in Asia and Oceania. Needless to say, the expansion of the community owe largely to the activity of the Planetary Science (PS) section of AOGS and the efforts of the president and conveners in the past. At the same time, many international lunar and planetary missions including Chandrayaan, Chang’E, and Hayabusa, which were launched in the AsiaOceania region, contributed in the rapid growth of the planetary science community. We expect this trend to continue on to the next decades with expanding participation of Korea, Taiwan, and other countries. In order to proceed to the next stage for greater achievement in the planetary science, an international collaboration will become a crucial factor as we all understand. Also, an engagement of various fields of planetary scientists, such as ground based observations of the solar system, theoretical studies of planetary atmosphere, and chemical analysis of planetary materials in the laboratory, will become absolutely necessary. Planetary science is an interdisciplinary field integrating with astronomy, astrophysics, geology, geophysics, atmospheric science, space plasma physics and many more. Furthermore, those working on the ground observation have greater experience of joint research in Asia-Oceania region and are highly skilled in organizing international research group. With this view, I truly believe that the PS section of AOGS will play a crucial role in the adjustment of interest and concerns among space agencies of different countries, hoping science to be a driving force of the space missions. The population of space scientists in Asia and Oceania is smaller than in US and Europe, and the planetary scientists are much less. It is important for us to clear each other’s peculiarity, advantages and disadvantages, and responsibility to keep this community growing. And a communication is necessarily the foundation of mutual understanding.
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