The news comes from Slashdot, where the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced at a conference their plans to establish a lunar base by 2030. JAXA currently lacks a rocket capable of carrying 100 tons and a manned spaceflight system, so perhaps this is the time for JAXA to join NASA's Orion program and Constellation rocket project. The article states that JAXA aims to launch a lunar orbiter in 2007, send astronauts to the moon by 2020 to begin constructing the base, with the goal of completing it by 2030.