Research Lab

The  is a location on board Mothership Zeta.

About
The vaguely-named Research Lab is an area of Mothership Zeta accessible via the Cargo Hold. It is unnecessary to visit the Research Lab to gain access to the Bridge and further the questline. However, visit this area before leaving the Engineering Core, as most doors are rendered inaccessible at the end of the story and all chance of retrieving Captive Recordings towards the Alien Archivist goal permanently lost.

At first glance, the Research Lab appears to be where the aliens analyze Earth's vehicular technology. Cars, motorcycles, and a named command module from a USSA spacecraft (possibly associated with Colonel Hartigan) appear to confirm this.

Deeper in the labs however, one discovers a warehouse-scale collection of Giddyup Buttercups and related memorabilia in various states of storage. It appears that the aliens are unhealthily fascinated with the pre-war toy and may be trying to turn them into weapons, as one room houses a lone Giddyup Buttercup surrounded by dead bodies with observation rooms on either side, and a workbench can be found with a disassembled Buttercup and some grenades.

Notable loot
Apart from two Alien Archivist Logs and a miniature "Buttercup Toy" with no obvious use (found on the second level of one of the warehoused Buttercup shelves), this area seems to be purely for humor and flair.

Many Toy Cars on the shelf near the door leading into the "Buttercup Lab"

Behind the scenes
The USSA spacecraft found in this area resembles the Mercury capsules built by NASA for the first American spaceflights, it even follows the same naming conventions as the real-world ships. It can be presumed that the ship and Colonel Hartigan were abducted during one of the flights and the incident covered up by the government.

Appearances
only appears in the Fallout 3 add-on Mothership Zeta.