To answer the sharing question and add to Stephen’s response: yes, it’s pretty competitive. Functionally, the International Partners get Interface Definition Documents and Interface Control Documents … and that’s about it. As a contractor who works with multiple IPs … let me tell you, it’s fun.

As for whether a person or computer waits in line, it’s safer to resupply the ISS with robotic craft rather than crewed ones.

Aren’t we sharing this mess with the Russians? Don’t they have ‘too much stuff’ as well?

My buddy works for Orbital Science, and keeps launching stuff from weird places, like out at sea or from their roof, or whatever. He says that in a coupl’a years, we’re either going to build a new station, or set up valet parking at the one we’ve got…

At that point, what will it matter if it’s a person or a computer waiting in line?

We could in the sense of “NASA has access to pieces of the necessary technology,” not in the sense of “NASA could do this today, or even next year.”

Ben:

There’s very little sharing among NASA, the ESA, and Roskosmos. Heck, it’s hard enough to get the various NASA centers to share.

To clear up one thing, though, a bunch of different people and companies are doing docking sensor R&D. In one sense it’s duplication of effort, but in another everyone has a slightly different take on how to approach the problem. The Russian system is a radar-and-transponder approach, for instance.