Hi all,
I am thinking a bit about the sorts of people that maintain space stations in the Iron Empires.
Obviously the Kerrn are pretty great at this kind of thing, but should I burn up some Iron Empires lifepaths to represent space-station techs and administrators and the like? Or is this lack a “feature” of the setting (a station’s amenities are maintained by Kerrn… or former Vaishyen infiltrators!).
Is there some skill or combination of skills that you’re looking for but not seeing in the human LPs? I think civilian space stations would be maintained by folks from the Spacefarer setting, and military by Hammer crew.
It might be worth making a few LPs for specific stationer roles (I think the military commander of a station would have a different job from the captain of a ship, for instance) but in most cases, a ship sensor tech is the same as a station sensor tech.
Hydrology is noticeable in its absence, and I was wondering vaguely if some Downbelow Station-inspired civilian station inhabitant LPs would be worth making (maybe even a different Born LP? “Born Floating” or something). I realise that you can colour a lot of things to cover some concepts, but the Spacefarer LPs are pretty focussed on flying about it seems (the Science-type LP is all about physics and anomalies, not biology and ecosystems). I imagine a couple of Spacefarer LPs that provide some space-station flavour for existing Commune, Merchant League, and Freeman LPs.
I had actually wondered a bit about conflicts between the Peerage regarding who controls orbital “defence platforms”. Is it Hammer or Anvil, or an uneasy shared responsibility? Could be some fun problems to play through there.
Freeman setting, namely the Student and Laborer LPs.
As station crew? These LPs don’t have Crew or Hydrology unfortunately. 
I realise you could take them as General Skills, but that’s not fun!
I guess some people may not like LP creep, but I think it’s neat (those military, noble, and servitude LPs on the wiki are nifty).
I think stations are probably like assault shuttles: They can belong to either peerage, though I’d be surprised to see major Anvil stations on a world with any substantial Hammer presence.
I think I’d handle this with maybe a couple LPs and some trait work. Make a Floater trait, allow it as a cultural trait choice or add it to the Son of a Gun list. Make a Stationmaster LP, and maybe a Hydroponicist LP, and anything else that really is missing. But I wouldn’t make separate stationer LPs for stuff that already has Hammer or Spacefarer coverage.
It’s also worth remembering that just because a skill doesn’t appear in any lifepaths doesn’t mean no one knows it. There are some humans who understand Fusion Dynamics, for instance… Just not very many, and they’re rare geniuses rather than anything you could put out a want ad for.
My take on it is space stations are a mature technology in the Iron Empires. They’re manufactured according to standard specs, and those scut-work LPs keep them running. For all practical purposes, a space station facility is not any different than a surface structure. Think Red Dwarf, not Star Trek.