  A salient feature of the manned spacecraft is the predominance of discrete
information in the manual control loop of the onboard systems. Specifically,
command-signaling control panels (CSCP) as a subsystem of the manual control
loop are widely used in the Russian manned spacecraft. In this paper CSCP are
classified into four types: a) control panels based on multi-channel control;
b) control panels based on command-information compression; c) control panels
based on command and signaling information compression; d) integrated control
consoles (ICC) based on computer and information technology. It is shown that
ICC underlies modern information display systems (IDS). ICC first appeared in
the Russian manned space program in the IDS of the Soyuz-TMA spacecraft and the
Russian modules of the International Space Station. Results of engineering and
psychological studies of different types of panels are produced.
