Museum of Technology

The Museum of Technology is a building in the ruins of Washington, D.C., on the east side of The Mall. It is only a short distance away from the eastern Museum Station metro exit.

Layout
The Museum of Technology is one of the few more or less intact buildings in the National Mall. However, it is not likely to survive for much longer, as the building is crumbling, with pillars falling out of place and visible holes in the roof, and the attractions have been heavily damaged. It occupies the real-world site of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.

Several exhibits have survived the years following the nuclear firestorm of 2077. The original plane successfully flown by the Wright Brothers (the Wright 'Flyer') is the airplane that is on the floor, smashed, just inside the museum. Deeper inside the museum, one can find two more airplanes. Hanging from the ceiling in the same room as the Virgo II lunar lander is a Mustang. This airplane is also on display by the Capitol Preservation Society in Rivet City. In the West Wing of the museum, partially buried in the rubble is a fighter jet (the same model as the jets resting on the deck of the Rivet City aircraft carrier).

By far the biggest attraction is a sample Vault-Tec Industries Vault on the second floor which the player must go through in order to get to the Virgo II lander. It serves as a demonstration of what Vault life would be like and displays the various technologies used by Vault-Tec in constructing the Vaults. It consists of a hallway with windows that show examples of different Vault sections. The rooms of the exhibit include a bedroom, kitchen, and classroom. Next to the windows are speakers which play recorded messages.

Two exhibits on the ground floor near the Delta rocket celebrate the first human space flight of Carl Bell as taking place on May 5, 1961 in the space capsule Defiance 7. That date is the flight of the first real American in space, Alan Shepard, aboard the Freedom 7 Mercury 3 capsule. Note that Shepard did not orbit the earth and that his sub-orbital flight lasted only fifteen minutes. In our real-world timeline, the first human spaceflight was Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961, aboard which Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made one orbit around the Earth.

There is a control room to the south, up the (southernmost) stairs in the back, its windows visible from the entry hall, behind a wire mesh most likely installed by Derek Remmings, Maintenance Coordinator in 2077. The Maintenance computer to the east has a list of log entries by Remmings as his officious plans are thwarted one by one by his fellow employees. The turret control system is what one might expect; the computer can be hacked for XP, and the turrets turned on, whereupon they will attack anything in line of sight. Since there are no other available targeting options, reconfiguring their targeting parameters once they are set to attack essentially does nothing; they still attack all targets.

Notable loot

 * A Nikola Tesla and You skill book can be found on the second floor of the atrium, in the turret control room on the right of the Maintenance computer.
 * There are three Stealth Boys on display in the museum, complete with little plaques describing them: one in the main entrance of the atrium (southwest corner), and two more up the main stairs to the left in the entry room leading to the 'Halls of Today' exhibit. The Stealth Boys are much bigger than normal Stealth Boys found out in the wasteland.
 * There are two hidden areas in room with the multi-level staircase surrounding the Delta IX rocket. Starting from the lower floor, go up the stairs to the second floor, you will see two consoles that say 'Activate Delta IX rocket'. Just to the left of both consoles is a plaque, and to the left of that is the railing that guides its way to a thin ledge on the outside of the stairs for the third floor. At each gap, instead of going up the stairs (2nd floor stairs, and 3rd), jump up onto the room railing, then down onto the little ledge that runs along the outside of the stairs. Follow the ledge to each hidden area.
 * The first area has a mine box, an assault rifle and a bed.
 * The second area is actually a blocked off room, which contains a Guns and Bullets skill book in the corner. This section also contains two Nuka-Cola bottles which are unique by their size which is smaller than a usual Nuka-Cola bottle. These bottles are also beside some medicaments such as purified water, etc. If you have a companion, he or she may warp into the room after you get there, and warp back out when you leave.
 * In the planetarium office, there is a Nuka-Cola Quantum on the shelf.

Jiggs' Loot
In the atrium there is an unlit "Museum Information" terminal inside the translucent cowls usually used for telephones. It displays, below the usual menu items, a message from Prime to Jiggs, beginning the minor quest about a weapons cache in the security office (west of the Planetarium) safe.

Properly entering codes at this terminal and two other "Museum Information" terminals activates a password which is automatically entered when the terminal near the safe is accessed, unlocking the safe. The second password terminal is in the West Wing, and the third by the rocket; see the Jiggs' Loot article for locations and passcodes.

The immediate reward inside the safe is the key to the gun cabinet in the planetarium office, containing a missile launcher, some missiles, and 2 pulse grenades. There is a further, greater, reward; Prime's corpse, with the Xuanlong assault rifle, only spawns if the three correct numbers are chosen.

Galaxy News Radio
In exchange for information about your father, Three Dog requests that you do a little favor for him. You must recover a satellite dish from the Virgo II Lunar Lander in order to broaden the station's signal, as the one on top of the Washington Monument was destroyed. If successful, Galaxy News Radio can be broadcast over the rest of the Wasteland instead of it being limited to just the D.C. area.

Appearances
The Museum of Technology appears only in Fallout 3.

The same Museum of Technology posters from Fallout 3 can be found in Fallout: New Vegas. One in particular can be found in the weather monitoring station in The Fort.

Behind the scenes

 * On a semicircular desk in the atrium, a number of pencils and one bottlecap are arranged to form the logo of the gaming news website Shacknews.
 * The narration of the curtailed planetarium show is an impersonation of the famous astronomer Carl Sagan.
 * A flag on the lobby balcony references a destroyed ship named Ebon Atoll, which is likely a reference to Black Isle Studios. They note it was "torpedoed" (lit. sabotaged) by a friendly.
 * There is a reference to L.A. death/industrial metal band Fear Factory. There are two separate computer terminals, one in the lobby and one in the planetarium, where you can access the research lead's notes. The first journal entry contains lyrics from Fear Factory's song "Archetype", and "Burton C. Bell" (the research lead's name) is the name of Fear Factory's lead singer.
 * In the room with the lunar lander, there is a terminal which provides information about various exhibits. For the Flight Exhibit, it states that it is sponsored by Lockreed Industries. This is a reference to the Lockheed Martin Corporation, a company which manufactures military aircraft.
 * In the atrium on the first terminal involved in the Jigg's Loot quest, there is a list of upcoming exhibits and presentations. Among these is information on a lecture called "Oppenheimer"s Folly" being presented by a prof. R.J. Gumbie. This is a reference to a recurring group of characters on Monty Python's Flying Circus. All these characters have a first and middle initial along the lines of R.J. or R.M. and the last name Gumby, have the title of professor, wear bizarre clothing, and have very severe brain damage, leaving one to question how they got their titles in the first place. It is unknown whether the professor giving the presentation had the latter two commonalities, or if the only similarity is the name.