Museum of Technology



The Museum of Technology is a building in the ruins of Washington, D.C., on the southern 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 shows clear signs of the bombings in the area; the building is crumbling, with pillars falling out of place and visible holes in the roof, and the attractions have been heavily damaged.

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 smashed on the floor 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 Vault-Tec Corporation demonstration Vault model on the second floor, through which the player must go in order to reach 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.

There is a control room to the south, up the southernmost stairs in the back. Its windows are visible from the entry hall, behind a wire mesh most likely installed by Derek Remmings, the 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 museum also contains a malfunctioning Planetarium in the Northern section of the West Wing. The program will begin playing when the Lone Wanderer enters the room but eventually malfunctions and enters a continuous loop. There is an office on the East side of the room containing a terminal for a pre-war researcher, a Nuka-Cola Quantum, and locked a gun cabinet containing various weapons and ammo. Upon exiting the office two Super Mutants will spawn in the Planetarium entrance.

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 in various locations.

Behind the scenes

 * The Museum occupies the real-world site of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.
 * On a semicircular desk in the atrium, a number of pencils and one bottle cap 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 collection of references 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 notes regarding the Archetype Model FF06 Mainframe. "FF" is an acronym of Fear Factory. "Archetype" is the title of their most popular song, while the lines "The infection has been removed... the soul of this machine has improved" are lyrics verbatim to the song "Archetype". Furthermore, the author of the notes, Research Lead "B. Bell" is a reference to Fear Factory's lead vocalist, Burton C. Bell.
 * 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 Jiggs' 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.