Two years ago, the President of the United States made it clear that a return to the Moon was not a priority for American space flight, but it seems he may have forgotten to tell NASA. American astronauts are apparently planning to head back to the Moon less than 10 years from now. At least, that's what the European Space Agency says.

Earlier this year , we heard some exciting chatter about a NASA plan to build a space station on the far side of the moon. Now it seems that, though they won't confirm it, the space agency is moving closer to making that a reality, if only temporarily.

Yesterday we heard that Russia's planning to put their first man on the moon by 2030, something a lot of people see as a real long shot given the state of their space program. Well, it turns out they don't just want a moonshot by 2030. They want much, much more.

The bright side to not knowing what exactly will come out of NASA next is hearing about all the ambitious ideas they're generating over there right now. Sure, some of them might never see the light of day, but that doesn't make them any less cool. Take this idea, in which the space agency could use a certain gravitational quirk on the far side of the moon to park a long-term space presence there.