Editing Stars Without Number: Back in Black (section)

=== Spacer Culture ===
Any PC with a spare Culture/0 slot might well consider spending it on Spacer, since spacers are the people you will have lots of contact with. There are spacers everywhere in civilization, since civilization by definition consists of the places spacers can get to. Spacers deny that there is any such thing as spacer culture. This is because spacer culture is often more about things and spaces than about [whatever people think culture is 'about'], because spacer culture is "just a common-sense reaction to living in space, not anything about mythology or rituals or taboos," and because denying that their culture is really a culture is a thing that people like to do.<br/><br/>

Spacer culture is transmitted through, and takes its name from, the Spacer's Bible. This is a document that dates back to the Terran days, and has been expanded upon with commentary (and commentary to the commentary) over the centuries since then. The definitive edition pre-scream was known as the Little Blue Book, and it often was possessed in the form of an actual book with pages. It is now an app that is kept on the compad of almost anyone that spends much time outside of a planetary surface. 
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The Spacer's Bible is full of charts and useful data about how to maintain a vacc suit, how much oxygen a person needs in a given period of time and how long it will take them to deplete a given number of cubic feet of atmosphere. It has introductions to how pay should be calculated for different crew members and how votes should be conducted. It defines the standard division of duties on a vessel. It gives standardized answers to every kind of practical question, so that everyone knows the hand signals you use if comms go out, and how to secure lines if someone has to go out for a spacewalk across the hull. Even if you do not have any medical training yourself, the Spacer's Bible will give you a quick practical rundown on what a radiation leak will do for you, at least in terms of how quickly it will kill you.
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It also has many practical pieces of advice and wisdom about how to conduct yourself aboard a ship. Spacer culture, and the spacer bible, was developed by people who had a lot in common with sailors and roughnecks. It is ruggedly practical and designed to function in times of high stress and pressure. It is intended to function as a lingua franca for people who might come from very different backgrounds. 
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Spacer Culture has as many tenets and practices as any other culture, but the following are major strains that run through it.
*Spacer culture comes from an acknowledgment that the lives of everyone on a ship depend on each other, and also that people in potentially tight quarters such as a ship or a station must get along.
*Spacers are egalitarian, but elitist. People on a ship can be divided between Crew and Passengers. Crew are spacers and are useful. Passengers are not spacers and should ideally be in cold sleep. Harassment or (non-playful) insult of either passengers or crew on the basis of almost anything other than proven competence and usefulness is a dreadful breach of etiquette. You don't want to insult the religion of someone you may be stuck in a can with for the next month.
*Hygiene is a matter of serious concern. Spacers typically shave their heads for hygiene reasons, including women. Men may have their facial hair permanently removed for the same reasons. Some spacers (again, men and women) may keep wigs so that they don't stand out so much when they go planetside. All serious spacers have a small hygiene kit, and know how to maintain hygiene when there is limited water available.
*Spacer culture is very much concerned with things and spaces. A spacer knows how to use and interpret the signals that differentiate between public and private goods and areas, when to speak to someone and when to come back later. In tight quarters, spacers will usually converse shoulder-to-shoulder rather than face-to-face. A spacer knows the rules for using airlocks and vacc suits, regardless of whether they have any technical skills that let them actually understand those things.
*Spacers can be as boisterous and frivolous as anyone else when planetside or when in a truly huge space station. But when on a vessel, spacers will be quiet and at least nominally sober. Yelling across a space vessel without a good reason is a breach of etiquette. The typical starship crew will be equipped with earpieces linked to their compads that let them communicate across the ship.
*A vast pay differential between the highest-ranked person on a ship and the lowest qualified spacer is extraordinarily unusual. Of course, apprentice/unqualified swabbie types might be paid almost nothing but room, board, and training.
*A spacer is expected to be able to keep their chin up and a stiff upper lip. 
*Spacers would not have thought Ripley was being a bitch for trying to enforce quarantine procedures.
*Spacers know how to stow their things. Spacers do not wear clothing with no space for tools. Spacers do not like clutter, things must be secured in the proper place when not in use.
*Spacers consider it acceptable for crew members to be asked informally to segregate themselves from each other.

==== Spacer Equipment ====

[[Spacer's Package]] body modification