Ground test computer

A ground test computer was an information storage and processing device utilized on board spacecraft in Earth's early years of space exploration.

The NASA probe Voyager 6 was equipped with a ground test computer, as well as an antenna, with which it was able to receive a signal transmitted from Earth, instructing it to transmit the data it had gathered. In the 2270's, when Voyager 6 was discovered at the heart of the V'Ger entity by the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), First Officer Will Decker keyed the final sequence of the response code into the ground test computer, initiating a chain reaction which allowed him to physically merge with V'Ger.