Reminds me of
http://www.homerhickam.com/books/moon.shtml
I haven't read it yet, though I enjoyed his other books, this one seemed too outlandish.
Anyway, moon aside, what about permanently docking a shuttle to the ISS? Has a serious study ever been done regarding this?
Fill the cargo bay with Spacehab and whatever else you need to retrofit a shuttle for long duration stay (ie: Solar panels). Launch with a crew of two, have them return by some other means (Orion, Dragon, Soyuz). And when it comes time to de-orbit the station they could perhaps do a robotic landing to see if they can slavage the shuttle as a museum piece (as unpractical as that may be).