Museum of Technology

The Museum of Technology is a former museum located in Washington D.C. in Fallout 3. The building is falling apart in every possible way. The attractions have been smashed and the pillars are falling out of place, there are even visible holes in the roof. The place is filled with Super Mutants, Super Mutant Brutes, and possibly some Super Mutant Masters, depending on difficulty and PC level. When entering into the area, be prepared to use some Stimpaks, as the battle between Vault 101 Dweller and the Mutants isn't exactly for the faint of heart (there are 11 in pretty much the immediate area of the Tech. Museum).

Unmarked quest: Jiggs' Loot
In the atrium, there is a lit "Museum Information" terminal with a message from Prime to Jiggs, beginning the minor quest, about a stash in the Security Office Safe. Besides that "Museum Information" terminal, there are three other "Museum Information" terminals where codes need to be entered to obtain a password that is entered into the terminal beside the safe. Inside the safe is the key to the gun cabinet in the planetarium. The gun case contains a Missile Launcher, some Missiles, and 2 Pulse Grenades.

Items

 * Skill book "Nikola Tesla and You" on the 2nd floor of the atrium, in the turret control room.
 * You can find at least 3 Stealth Boy 3001's. One in the first room, and two next to each other, up the stairs from the first room on your right. All 3 are on display with little plaques that talk about them.
 * There are two hidden areas under the staircase surrounding the large rocket. Instead of climbing the stairs, jump down onto the ledge and follow it back to the corner to find a hidden sleeping area on one floor, and a hidden room on another.  The skill book Guns and Bullets is located here, as well as 4 Purified Waters, 2 Nuka Cola bottles and a Stimpak.
 * In the same room where you find the gun cabinet, there is a Nuka-Cola Quantum on the shelf.

Trivia

 * The original plane successfully flown by the Wright Brothers (the Wright 'Flyer') is the plane shown on the ground smashed right in front of the entrance..


 * Deeper inside the museum, you can find two more airplanes. Hung from under the ceiling is a P-51 Mustang, which can be shot down to make it fall to the floor. Also, further on from the Mustang, partially buried in the rubble is a P-80 Shooting Star fighter (this is also the same as the planes that are resting on the deck of the Rivet City airplane carrier).


 * There is a Vault-Tec Vault Tour on the second floor which you must go through in order to get to the Virgo II lander. It shows examples of Vault-Tec's technology inside the Vaults, and is used as and advertisement of the facilities.
 * The number on the presentation Vault's door is "106". Possibly a reference to Vault 106 (and how it failed), or the same door was re-used by the game's developers for the exhibit.


 * A flag on the lobby balcony references a destroyed ship named Ebon Atoll, which is likely a reference to Black Isle.


 * The museum occupies the real-life site of the National Air and Space Museum.


 * The information about the moon landing that happened in 1969 is contradicted in Fallout, possibly by the government that ruled around 2077. It could also be because the Fallout timeline diverged from ours around the 1940's.
 * The information in the game says that the moon landing took place on July 11, 1969, while in real life, it took place on July 20, 1969.
 * The moon lander module (from which we take the antenna dish for the GNR quest) that we see in the game is called "Virgo II", while in real life, it was called the "Lunar Module Eagle".
 * In the game, the names of the astronauts are changed.
 * In one of the exhibits around the rocket, we can see the US flag that was supposedly recovered from the site of the original moon landing by the crew of the last mission to go there. The flag is not the Star Spangled Banner, but rather the "Fallout design" that was created in the early 21st century of the Fallout timeline.
 * This would also contradict the whole Fallout timeline, which states that the US broke up into 13 commonwealths in the early 21st century, and the flag was then changed. 1969 is in the 20th century, so the flag should still be the Star Spangled Banner.


 * 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:

"The virus that has been plaguing our Archetype Model FF06 Mainframe due to an unknown attack has finally been localized by our research team and identified. After a complete cleanup on the mainframe's core, I am happy to announce that the infection has been removed...the soul of this machine has improved. B. Bell, Research Lead" Burton Bell is the name of Fear Factory's lead singer.


 * In the Museum Information terminals, under the Special Events category, is a lecture entitled "Oppenheimer's Folly?". The lecture is by Professor R.J. Gumbie which may refer to the show "Monty Python's Flying Circus" where one of the recurring characters is sometimes named "Professor R.J. Gumby" or sometimes just "R.J. Gumby".