Hydroponics, the science of growing plants without soil, had been developed in the 1930s. One of the earliest successful applications was developed by Pan American Airlines on Wake Island. Later to become famous in World War II, this rocky atoll was an important refueling stop for Pan Am’s Trans-Pacific flights, and the airline grew fresh vegetables for their passengers when the cost of shipping them in proved prohibitive.
In January 1948, Operation Windmill discovered the remains of the abandoned Neuschwaben landbase in Antarctica. Among the remains of the base the expedition’s scientists discovered clear evidence of hydroponic cultivation of wheat, rye, and several vegetables, which would have been as vital in Antarctica as it is on the Moon. Geological surveys and lander missions from the 1960s on have confirmed that the lunar surface provides all the minerals necessary to mix a “Hoagland solution” soil substitute.
In addition, biologists attached to Operation Windmill recovered bones and droppings that indicated the presence of sheep, pigs, and cattle at the Neuschwaben landbase, as well as laboratory equipment consistent with artificial insemination and genetic research. A classified report in the files of the US Air Force concludes that the fleeing Nazis took any remaining livestock with them.
In designing the Walhalla base, Kammler took every precaution to avoid wasting resources that could not be as readily replenished on the Moon as they could on Earth. Waste processing begins with water extraction and purification to replenish the base’s modest water supply.
Next, the dried waste passes through a number of fermentations which yield methane and other hydrocarbons. These were especially important during the base’s early years when certain operations were still fueled by combustion engines, but since the mid-1960s the zero-point energy from the Glocke has replaced the need for hydrocarbon fuels. Now, they are used mainly to supplement the soil substitute used in the base’s hydroponic labs.
In the final stage, the remaining waste is processed chemically to extract trace amounts of various metals and minerals. Based on US experiments over the last decade, it is estimated that less than 0.18 ounces of non-recoverable waste is produced per person, per day.
Also known as the Yaktavian Bell, the Glocke power source developed out of Thule Society research, which indicated that placing mercury under magnetic stress could alter its fundamental nature and release a virtually unlimited supply of energy.
Under the name Lanternenträger (Lantern-Bearer), a project was begun in fall 1943 to construct a Glocke in Silesia’s Wenceslas Mine. Using a radioactive mercury isotope called Xerum 525, the Glocke was large enough to power the entire Third Reich, in theory at least.
Russian and Polish forces overran Silesia in 1945. During the early years of the Cold War, it was feared that the Soviet Union had captured the Glocke and would turn its power against the United States and its allies. These fears were not allayed until 1968, when Apollo 8 photographed it in the Aristarchus crater. How it was smuggled out of Germany remains a mystery.
After the primary structures of the base were in position, the power plants of the Haunebu craft were coupled together to create a working power grid. While this was sufficient for day-to-day operation, Kammler had calculated that a much larger power source would be required in order to meet the needs of the various special projects relocated to the Moon.
As an interim measure while the Glocke zero-point energy source was being set up, the saucers’ power plants were supplemented by a steam-turbine system improvised from stripped U-boat parts. An array of water-filled pipes took advantage of the Moon’s daytime surface temperatures of around 240 degrees Fahrenheit to generate electricity. Never intended to last, this makeshift system failed after a few months under the extreme stress of lunar temperature variation: without the moderating effects of an atmosphere, day and night temperatures can vary by as much as 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Once the Glocke was online, the steam turbine system was largely cannibalized for parts and raw materials. However, as late as 1958 an early Soviet Luna mission photographed what seemed to be a scrap yard containing lengths of pipe and partial turbine blades.
As part of the Bifrost Protocol, the Haunebu IV was fitted with a Würzburg-Riese Gigant radar system with a range of over 60 miles. The system has been continually upgraded over the years, and according to classified US Air Force documents the base was able to detect an attacking MQ-37 drone from a range of 200 miles during a 2015 mission. The Würzburg array is supplemented by various radio and television antennae which allow the base to monitor transmissions from Earth.
Outgoing radio traffic from the Walhalla base was first detected by Britain’s Jodrell Bank Observatory in early 1949. The first radio intercepts were handed off to the Government Code and Cipher School at RAF Eastcote in west London, which found that they were internal base communications and not, as was first suspected, messages to surviving Nazis on Earth. The watching brief passed to a joint project run by GCHQ from its Cheltenham headquarters with assistance from MI5 and the Ministry of Defence. By 1951 both the CIA and KGB had become aware of the lunar transmissions and set up their own monitoring programs; these led directly to the US and Soviet space programs, which are discussed in a later chapter.
A Würzburg-Reise radar dish. Normally ground-based, a unit was fitted to the Haunebu IV craft. (MoRsE)
Under the Bifrost Protocol, Kammler planned to take enough resources to the Moon to sustain the Walhalla base for the first three months of its life. During that period, all personnel not directly involved in base construction were assigned to lunar exploration and prospecting. These early missions showed that iron, oxygen, and silicon were comparatively abundant on the lunar surface, along with magnesium, aluminum, manganese, and titanium. As expected, carbon and nitrogen were extremely scarce, and a stringent waste recycling program was set up to preserve what had been brought from Earth.
Metal extraction and refining became one of the most important day-today operations as soon as the Glocke power source was working. A number of linear and squared-off features have been photographed on the Moon, contrasting markedly with the craters surrounding them. Some have been claimed as proof of alien activity on the Moon, but while NASA and other government agencies have declined to comment beyond condemning the photos as fakes, a few writers have noted that these images are similar to aerial photographs of open-cast mines and their supporting road networks.