Once commands uplinked from Earth are decoded and validated, they are sent to the on-board computer for processing. In general, all commands are sent first to the computer, even commands that are intended for a specific device. This is so the computer is aware of the request, and can allocate resources (such as memory or playback bandwidth) needed by the request. However, in an emergency situation, the communications interface can send commands directly to specific devices.
Telemetry and scientific data, excepting real-time data, is stored in the recorder to await transmission to Earth. Very often, the computer processes the data before transmission. The computer can perform image processing, acoustic array processing, and other types of data processing. Data will be compressed before transmission.